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I  I  II  111 

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BR  123  .D46  1911   c.l 
Denney,  James ^  1856-1917 
The  way  everlasting 


THE   WAY   EVERLASTING 


THE 

WAY    EVERLASTING 


Sermons 

BY 

JAMES   DENNEY,   D.D. 


Thy  testimonies  have  I  taken  as  an  heritage  for  ever 


HODDER   AND   STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


Printed  in  1911 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  Elemental  Eeligion       1 

«'  0  Lord,  Thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me."— 
Psalm  cxxxix.  1. 


II.  Man's  Claims  in  Eeligion,  and  God's  Eesponse       13 

"  Jews  ask  for  signs,  and  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  :  but 
we  preach  Christ  crucified  .  .  .  Christ  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God."— 1  Corinthians 
I.  22-24. 


III.  Knowledge,  not  Mystery,  the  Basis  of  Ee- 
ligion ...         ...         •••         •••         •••       26 

"  The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  :  but 
those  things  that  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and 
to  our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all  the 
words  of  this  law."— Deuteronomy  xxix.  29. 


IV.  The  Exile's  Prayer       38 

"  I  am  a  stranger  in  the  earth :   hide  not  Thy  com- 
mandments from  me."— Psalm  cxix.  19. 


V.  The  Happiness  of  the  Christian  Era  ...       50 

"  Blessed  are  your  eyes,  for  they  see ;  and  your  ears, 
for  they  hear."— Matthew  xiii.  16  f. 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VI.  Learning  from  the  Enemy       ...         ...         ...       62 

•'  And  David  said  ...  let  him  curse,  for  the  Lord  hath 
bidden  him." — 2  Samuel  xvi.  11. 


VII.  Creation 74 

"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth." — Genesis  i.  1. 


VIII.  The  Great  Charter       ...         ...       88 

•'  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness,  and  let  them  have  dominion  .  .  . 
over  all  the  earth." — Genesis  i.  26. 


IX.  The  Ideal  Church         101 

'•  And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  Apostles'  teach- 
ing and  in  the  fellowship,  in  the  breaking  of  the 
bread,  and  the  prayers." — Acts  ii.  42. 


X.  A  Chosen  Generation    ...         ...         ...         ...     113 

"  Beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints." — Romans  i.  7. 
XI.  Loyalty  to  the  Saints  ...         ...         ...         .-     127 

"  If  I  had  said,  I  will  speak  thus  ;  Behold,  I  had  dealt 
treacherously  with  the  generation  of  thy  children." 
Psalm  lxxiii.  15. 

XII.  Degrees  of  Reality  in  Revelation  and  Re- 
ligion       141 

"  This  is  He  that  came  by  water  and  blood,  even  Jesus 
Christ ;  not  with  the  water  only,  but  with  the 
water  and  with  the  blood.  And  it  is  the  Spirit 
that  beareth  witness,  because  the  Spirit  is  the 
truth."— 1  John  v.  6  f. 


CONTENTS  vii 

PAGE 

XIII.  The  Supeklative  Way 152 

"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of 
angels,  and  have  not  love,  I  am  become  as  sound- 
ing brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal,  etc." — 1  Corin- 
thians XIII.  1-3. 


XIV.  The  Rich  Man's  Need  of  the  Poor  ...         ...     164 

"Now  there  was  a  certain  rich  man,  and  he  was 
clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  faring  sump- 
tuously every  day ;  and  a  certain  beggar  named 
Lazarus  was  laid  at  his  gate." — Luke  xvi.  19  ff. 


XV.  Immortality  177 

"  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  " — Job  xiv.  14. 

XVI.  Wrong  Roads  to  the  Kingdom  ...         ...     189 

"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  be  tempted  of  the  devil." — Matthew  iv. 
1-11. 

XVII.  The  Leaven  op  the  Sadducees  ...         ...     204 

"  Take  heed  and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees 
and  of  the  Sadducees." — Matthew  xvi.  6. 

XVIII.  Walking  in  the  Light ...         ...     216 

**  If  we  walk  in  the  light  as  He  is  in  the  light,  we  have 
fellowship  one  with  another,  and  the  blood  of 
Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." — 1  John 
1.7. 

XIX.  Moral  Impossibilities    ...         ...         230 

"  Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of 
devils."— 1  Corinthians  x.  21. 


viii  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


XX.  The  Deadliness  of  Slander 242 

"Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Every  sin  and  blasphemy 
shall  be  forgiven  unto  men ;  but  the  blasphemy 
against  the  Spirit  shall  not  be  forgiven." — Matt- 
hew XII.  31  f. 


XXI.  The  One  Eight  Thing  to  Do 255 

"  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  counted  unto  him 
for  righteousness." — Romans  iv.  3. 

"  He  believed  in  the  Lord  ;  and  he  counted  it  to  Him 
for  righteousness." — Genesis  xv.  6. 


XXII.  Rival  Paths  to  Perfection      268 

"  Are  ye  so  foolish  ?  having  begun  in  the  Spirit  are  ye 
now  perfected  in  the  flesh?  " — Galatians  hi.  3. 


XXIII.  ''A  Good  Work" 282 

"  And  being  in  Bethany  in  the  house  of  Simon  the 
leper,  as  Ho  sat  at  meat,  there  came  a  woman 
having  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment  of  spikenard, 
very  precious  ;  and  she  brake  the  box,  and  poured 
it  on  His  head." — Maek  xiv.  3. 


XXIV.  Propitiation  294 

♦'  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world." — 1  John  ii.  2. 


XXV.  The  Voice  of  Jesus        308 

"Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke 
upon  you  and  learn  of  Me ;  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  My  burden  is 
light." — Matthew  xi.  28-30. 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION. 

"O  Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me." — Psalm  cxxxix.  i. 

I  ONCE  heard  a  well-known  man,  speaking  of  difficulties 
in  the  Bible,  express  himself  between  jest  and  earnest 
in  this  fashion  :  "The  Gospels  are  a  story,  and  a  story 
may  conceivably  be  untrue  ;  the  epistles  are  arguments, 
and  arguments  may  conceivably  be  unsound ;  but  the 
Psalms  are  the  immediate  reflection  of  personal  ex- 
periences, and  we  can  take  them  as  they  stand  without 
asking  any  questions."  Certainly  that  is  true  of  the 
139th  Psalm,  which  even  in  the  Psalter  has  an  eminence 
of  its  own,  and  brings  us  into  contact  with  elemental 
religion,  with  the  soul's  direct  and  overwhelming  ex- 
perience of  God.  None  of  us  could  have  written  it, 
but  there  is  none  of  us  in  whom  there  is  not  an  echo 
to  its  sublime  and  solemn  utterance ;  and  that  echo  is 
the  spirit  of  God,  bearing  witness  by  and  with  His 
word  in  our  hearts. 

The  Psalm  has  four  strophes,  each  of  six  verses ; 
and  in  each  of  the  four  an  essential  aspect  or  element 
in  the  soul's  experience  of  God  absorbs  the  mind  of  the 
writer.  It  will  repay  us  if  in  following  his  thought 
his  experience  in  any  degree  becomes  ours. 

I.  First,  he  is  overpowered  by  the  experience  of  God's 
perfect  knowledge  of  him. 

We  are  apt  to  speak  in  this  connexion  of  God's  om- 
niscience, but  there  is  nothing  about  omniscience  in 

I 


2  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  Psalm.  Omniscience  is  an  abstract  noun,  and 
abstract  nouns  are  unequal  to  the  intense  feeling  of 
the  passage.  The  important  thing  in  religion  is  not 
the  belief  that  God  is  omniscient,  but  the  experience 
that  God  knows  me,  and  it  is  on  this  the  Psalmist 
dwells.  It  is  almost  implied  in  the  connexion  of  his 
words  that  in  the  heart  of  the  writer  there  was  a  kind 
of  passive  resistance  to  this  experience,  a  resistance 
which  God's  spirit  overcame,  piercing  and  discovering 
all  his  inner  life.  We  are  slow  to  know  ourselves, 
and  sometimes  do  not  wish  to ;  purposes  form  in  the 
background  of  our  minds,  of  which  we  are  hardly 
conscious  ;  latent  motives  actuate  us  ;  perhaps  our  own 
words  or  deeds,  in  which  they  suddenly  issue,  startle 
us ;  we  are  amazed  that  we  should  have  said  or  done 
such  a  thing.  But  it  is  no  surprise  to  Him.  "Thou 
understandest  my  thought  afar  off."  Such  knowledge 
of  man  by  God  is  quite  different  from  omniscience. 
Omniscience  is  a  divine  attribute,  but  what  is  here  ex- 
perienced is  a  divine  action — it  is  God  through  His 
searching  knowledge  of  us  entering  with  power  into 
our  lives.  It  is  God  besetting  us  behind  and  before, 
and  laying  His  hand  upon  us.  The  Psalmist  does  not 
dwell  particularly  on  the  divine  motive,  so  to  speak,  in 
this  searching  of  man.  It  might  be  felt  as  the  shadow- 
ing of  the  soul  by  an  enemy,  or  as  the  over-shadowing 
presence  of  a  friend.  The  one  thing  on  which  he  does 
dwell  is  its  reality  and  its  completeness.  It  is  too 
wonderful  for  him  ;  it  baffles  him  when  he  tries  to 
understand  it ;  but  incomprehensible  as  it  is,  it  is  real. 
He  only  knows  himself  as  he  is  conscious  of  being 
searched  and  known  by  God. 

I  suppose  most  of  us  have  wrestled  with  (arguments 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION  3 

intended  to  prove  the  existence  or  the  personality  of 
God.  Well,  I  am  not  going  to  raise  any  philosophical 
question  about  the  powers  or  the  incapacities  of  human 
reasoning  in  this  matter.  No  religion  ever  took  its 
origin  in  such  reasoning,  however  it  may  have  suc- 
ceeded or  been  baffled  in  trying  to  justify  itself  at 
reason's  bar.  The  being  and  the  personality  of  God, 
so  far  as  there  is  any  religious  interest  in  them,  are  not 
to  be />?'az^^^  by  arguments ;  they  are  to  be  experienced^ 
in  the  kind  of  experience  here  described.  The  man 
who  can  say,  O  Lord^  Thou  hast  searched  mc  and  known 
me^  does  not  need  any  arguments  to  prove  that  God  is, 
and  that  He  is  a  person,  and  that  He  has  an  intimate 
and  importunate  interest  in  his  life.  If  that  is  a  real 
experience — as  who  will  deny  that  it  is  ? — and  if  it  is 
not  a  morbid  phenomenon,  but  one  which  is  sane  and 
normal,  then  the  thou  in  it  is  just  as  real  as  the  me. 
The  Psalmist  is  as  certain  of  God  as  he  is  of  his  own 
existence  ;  indeed  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is 
only  as  he  is  conscious  of  being  searched  and  known 
by  God — only  as  he  is  overwhelmed  by  contact  with  a 
spirit  which  knows  him  better  than  he  knows  himself 
— that  he  rises  to  any  adequate  sense  of  what  his  own 
being  and  personality  mean.  He  is  revealed  to  himself 
by  God's  search ;  he  knows  himself  through  God. 
Speaking  practically — and  in  religion  everything  is 
practical — God  alone  can  overcome  atheism,  and 
this  is  how  He  overcomes  it.  He  does  not  put  argu- 
ments within  our  reach  which  point  to  theistic  con- 
clusions ;  He  gives  us  the  experience  which  makes  this 
Psalm  intelligible,  and  forces  us  also  to  cry,  O  Lord, 
Thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me.  "After  that 
ye  have  known  God,"  says  St.  Paul  to  the  Galatians, 


4  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

"or  rather" — correcting  himself — "have  been  known 
by  God."  Yes,  it  is  the  overpowering  sense  that  we  are 
known  through  and  through  by  another  which  seals 
upon  our  hearts  that  knowledge  of  God  on  which 
religion  rests. 

2.  The  second  strophe  of  the  Psalm  deals  with 
another  aspect  or  element  in  the  writer's  experience 
of  God.  There  is  indeed  something  unreal  in  calling 
it  another,  for  all  experiences  of  God  are  interdepend- 
ent. Still,  it  inspires  the  Psalmist  anew  ;  his  soul, 
which  has  sunk  exhausted  under  the  thought  of  God's 
absolute  knowledge  of  him,  rallies  itself  to  speak  of 
God's  wonderful  and  inevitable  presence  with  him. 
And  here  again  we  should  take  care  not  to  lose  our- 
selves and  the  profit  of  this  high  experience  by  speaking 
of  God's  omnipresence.  No  doubt  if  we  were  con- 
structing a  doctrine  of  God,  we  should  have  need  and 
room  for  such  a  term ;  but  in  religion  the  important 
thing  is  not  the  idea  that  God  is  everywhere,  but 
the  experience  that  wherever  I  am  God  is  with  me. 
**  Whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy  spirit,  or  whither  shall 
I  flee  from  Thy  presence  ? "  Why,  it  may  be  asked, 
should  we  want  to  go  anywhere  ?  Why  should  we  try 
to  escape  from  God  ?  The  answer  does  not  need  to  be 
given,  because  every  one  can  give  it  for  himself  The 
first  man  tried  to  hide  from  God,  and  so  have  all  his 
children,  but  always  in  vain.  Wilful  boys  try,  experi- 
menting with  their  new-found  liberty,  and  God  makes 
His  presence  felt  through  all  their  riot.  Worldly  men 
try,  absorbed  in  affairs  they  had  rather  keep  to  them- 
selves, renouncing  church  and  sabbath,  Bible  and  re- 
flexion ;  but  when  they  least  expect  it,  a  light  or  a 
shadow  falls  on  their  path,  and  they  know  that  God  is 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION  5 

there ;  sensual  men  try  it  in  dissipation,  and  desperate 
men  even  in  death ;  but  there  is  no  height  nor  depth 
nor  distance  nor  darkness  that  can  shut  Him  out  ot 
our  Hfe.  As  St.  Augustine  says,  the  only  way  to  flee 
from  God  is  to  flee  to  Him.  The  voice  which  says  in 
our  hearts,  Where  art  thou  ?  is  not  meant  to  drive  us 
from  Him,  but  to  make  us  conscious  of  His  presence, 
and  to  urge  us  to  turn  consciously  to  Him.  There  is 
only  one  thing  which  can  really  separate  us  from  God, 
and  that  is  a  secret.  A  secret  always  divides.  It 
divides  more  in  proportion  as  the  relation  which  it 
annuls  is  close.  It  may  divide  fatally  husband  and 
wife  ;  it  divides  fatally  the  soul  and  God,  raising  an 
invisible  but  insuperable  wall  between  them,  and  keep- 
ing us  far  from  Him  even  while  He  is  intimately  near 
to  us.  Do  not  cut  yourself  off  from  God  by  any  un- 
confessed  sin,  by  any  unavowed  hope,  by  anything  that 
makes  you  restrain  prayer  or  try  to  avoid  His  presence. 
It  is  not  far  to  seek  and  to  find  Him.  He  is  near  to  all 
that  call  upon  Him  in  truth.  To  find  His  presence  not 
a  dread  but  an  inspiration.  He  asks  nothing  of  us  but 
that  we  should  walk  in  the  light  as  He  is  in  the  light, 
and  have  no  secrets  from  Him. 

3.  The  third  strophe  of  the  Psalm,  the  third  element 
in  the  Psalmist's  experience  of  God,  seems  at  the  first 
glance  to  be  of  a  different  character,  3^et  it  is  closely 
connected  with  what  precedes.  Observe  how  it  is 
linked  on  hy  for.  *'  For  Thou  hast  formed  my  reins  : 
Thou  hast  knit  me  together  in  my  mother's  womb." 
Here,  it  may  be  said,  we  are  not  dealing  with  immedi- 
ate experience  ;  there  is  an  element  of  inference  in  the 
writer's  conviction  which  is  introduced  by  the  Jor. 
God  is  at  first,  so  to  speak,  an  observer,  and  then  a 


6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

companion;  but  what  is  implied  in  an  observer  so 
searching,  in  a  companion  so  close  and  inseparable? 
To  the  mind  of  the  Psalmist  what  is  implied  is  that 
his  very  being  has  its  ground  in  God,  and  that  the 
'  whole  marvel  and  mystery  of  what  he  is  go  back  to 
Him.  If  it  were  not  so,  God  could  not  have  the  know- 
ledge of  him  or  the  nearness  to  him  by  which  he  is  so 
deeply  impressed.  At  first  he  thinks  of  himself  as  an 
inhabitant  of  the  moral  world,  and  there  God  is  an 
awful  observer,  an  inevitable  presence  ;  now  he  thinks 
of  himself  as  a  native  of  what  we  call  the  physical 
universe,  only  to  realize  that  there  also  the  presence 
and  action  of  God  are  as  pervasive  as  in  the  higher 
sphere.  It  is  not  exaggerating  or  misrepresenting  him 
if  we  say  that  the  truth  to  which  expression  is  given 
in  the  third  section  of  the  Psalm  is  the  truth  that  the 
physical  and  the  moral  worlds,  as  we  call  them,  are 
one  in  God — that  He  whose  moral  sovereignty  has  been 
so  deeply  felt  and  so  wonderfully  described  in  the  world 
of  conscious  life  is  the  author  of  nature  too — and  that 
nature  and  human  nature,  in  each  individual  human 
being,  through  all  variations  of  condition  and  circum- 
stance, are  determined  by  Him  and  are  continually  in 
His  hand.  "  My  frame  was  not  hidden  from  Thee  when 
I  was  made  in  secret  ...  in  Thy  book  were  they  all 
written,  even  the  days  which  were  ordained,  when  as 
yet  there  was  none  of  them."  In  all  that  we  are,  in  the 
very  frame  and  texture  of  our  being ;  in  all  that  befalls 
us,  in  the  length  of  our  life  and  its  vicissitudes,  we  are 
absolutely  dependent  on  God.  That  in  a  manner  ex- 
plains how  we  can  have  the  wonderful  experiences  of 
God  before  described ;  only  the  author  of  our  being 
could  have  such  a  close  and  unremitting  interest  in  us. 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION  7 

There  are  few  things  more  to  be  desired  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  than  the  power  to  realize  this  truth. 
Partly  we  have  got  into  the  habit  of  defining  the 
physical  and  the  moral  worlds  simply  by  contrast  with 
each  other,  as  if  we  had  not  to  live  at  the  same  time  in 
both,  and  as  if  that  did  not  imply  their  ultimate  unity; 
and  partly  we  are  accustomed  to  appeal  to  the  lower 
against  the  higher.  How,  a  man  asks,  can  I,  a  creature 
with  such  a  nature,  face  a  spiritual  calling  ?  How  can 
I  ever  be  anything  but  what  I  am  ?  There  is  no  pro- 
portion between  the  constitution  which  nature  has 
given  me  and  the  vocation  with  which  God  summons 
me.  Or  the  same  thing  is  said  about  circumstances. 
How  can  anyone  born  in  the  conditions  in  which  I  was, 
and  compelled  to  live  in  the  environment  in  which  I 
live,  be  anything  but  the  miserable  creature  you  see  ? 
These  are  dangerous  things  to  say.  No  one  ever  says 
them  for  himself  with  quite  a  good  conscience,  and 
their  moral  unsoundness  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
compassion  for  others  which  they  inspire  turns  only 
too  easily  into  contempt.  Surely  the  Psalmist  has  the 
deep  truth  in  his  grasp  when  he  reminds  us  that  God 
is  not  only  intimately  with  us  in  our  moral  life,  but 
that  He  is  in  and  behind  our  nature  and  our  circum- 
stances— that  He  fashioned  us  in  the  womb  and  that  all 
our  days  were  written  in  His  book — that  He  commits 
us  to  no  conflict  in  which  He  does  not  stand  behind  us 
— that  no  nature  is  so  disabled,  no  circumstances  so 
disabhng,  as  to  shut  a  man  out  from  the  care  and  the 
providence  of  his  Maker.  One  of  the  striking  things 
in  the  Psalm  is  the  tone  in  which  the  writer  speaks  of 
this  at  the  close  of  this  strophe.  The  omniscience  and 
omnipresence  of  God,  as  they  come  home  to  the  in- 


8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

dividual  conscience  in  the  moral  world,  have  something 
oppressive  in  them ;  they  awe  and  overwhelm  us ;  but 
as  resting  on  God's  creation  of  us,  and  His  providential 
ordering  of  our  lives,  they  are  transfigured  with 
tenderness  ;  the  Psalmist  is  not  haunted  by  God,  but 
abandons  himself  with  joy  to  His  care.  "How  precious 
also  are  Thy  thoughts  unto  me,  O  God  ;  how  great  is 
the  sum  of  them !  If  I  should  count  them,  they  are 
more  in  number  than  the  sand ;  when  I  awake,  I  am 
still  with  Thee."  No  doubt  these  words  repeat  in  a  new 
connexion  what  has  been  already  said  in  the  first  sec- 
tion— "such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me;  it  is 
high,  I  cannot  attain  unto  it " — but  they  contain  some- 
thing more.  They  are  an  echo  of  the  touching  words  in 
the  103rd  Psalm  :  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children, 
the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him  "  ;  they  are  an  anti- 
cipation of  St.  Peter's  words  in  the  New  Testament — 
"  Commit  your  souls  to  Him  in  well  doing  as  to  a  faithful 
Creator."  Whoever  betrays  us,  our  Creator  will  not. 
With  all  its  disabiHties  and  limitations,  and  in  spite  of 
all  its  corruptions,  human  nature  is  dear  to  its  author. 
"  I  will  give  thanks  unto  Thee,  for  I  am  awfully  and 
wonderfully  made  ;  wonderful  are  Thy  works,  and  that 
my  soul  knoweth  right  well."  It  is  only  when  we  shut 
God  out  of  nature — as  no  one  can  do  who  has  had  in 
his  nature  the  experience  out  of  which  man  cries,  O 
Lord,  Thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me — that  we 
can  look  on  it  in  ourselves  or  others  with  contempt  or 
despair.  For  the  human  creature  to  know  the  faithful 
Creator  is  to  know  that  he  has  not  been  made  in 
vain,  and  to  be  assured  that  through  whatever  conflicts 
he  can  rise  and  live  in  a  world  where  inspired  utter- 
ances like  those  of  this  Psalm  will  fall  upon  his  ear 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION  9 

through  nature  and  awaken  echoes  in  his  inmost 
soul. 

4.  And  now  we  come  to  the  last  strophe  of  the 
Psalm.  I  have  spoken  of  all  the  others  as  expressing 
some  aspect  or  element  of  religion  in  its  simplest  and 
deepest  form — as  uttering  the  soul's  fundamental 
experiences  of  God — but  can  we  say  the  same  of  this  ? 
or  does  it  not  carry  us  into  another  world  when  we 
read  :  "Oh  that  thou  wouldest  slay  the  wicked,  God ! 
Depart  from  me,  therefore,  ye  bloodthirsty  men.  Do 
not  I  hate  them,  O  Lord,  that  hate  Thee,  and  do  not  I 
loathe  them  that  rise  up  against  Thee  ?  I  hate  them 
with  perfect  hatred,  I  count  them  mine  enemies." 
How,  it  may  be  asked,  can  a  soul  which  has  been 
flooded  with  the  consciousness  of  God,  of  His  intimate 
nearness,  of  His  all  penetrating  love,  how  can  such  a 
soul  be  overcome  by  such  a  temper  ?  Surely  these 
are  not  pious  prayers ;  but  savage  and  inhuman,  a 
melancholy  illustration  of  the  inconsistencies  which 
lower  human  nature  even  at  its  height. 

I  cannot  think  that  in  a  mind  so  great  as  that  of  the 
writer  of  this  Psalm — and  one  might  even  say  in  a  work 
of  art  so  perfect — there  should  be  an  unprovoked  and 
sudden  lapse  into  mere  inconsistency.  There  must  be 
a  connexion  in  thought  between  these  passionate 
words  and  what  precedes,  and  I  believe  it  is  not  hard 
to  find.  The  Psalmist  has  been  dwelling  on  what  I 
have  called  the  unity  of  the  natural  and  the  moral 
worlds,  the  truth  that  God  is  behind  both,  that  it  is 
the  same  power  which  speaks  in  conscience,  reveal- 
ing man  to  himself,  and  which  originates  and  sustains 
that  physical  being  in  which  man  lives  his  moral  life. 
These  are  real  truths  and  experiences,  and  religion 


10  THE  WAY  EVJERLASTING 

depends  for  its  very  being  on  the  recognition  of  them. 
But  it  is  possible  to  recognize  them  in  a  way  which  is 
fatal  to  religion.  It  is  possible  to  lose  in  the  sense  of 
the  unity  of  nature  and  the  moral  life  as  alike  depend- 
ent on  God  the  sense  of  the  vital  differences  with  which 
they  confront  us.  It  is  possible  to  become  insensible 
to  the  fact  that  God  is  not  only  the  source  of  all  being, 
but  of  the  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  and  that 
to  assert  the  distinction  is  as  essential  to  religion  as  to 
assert  the  unity  of  God  and  the  dependence  of  all  things 
on  Him.  Christ,  says  a  French  writer,  has  two  great 
enemies,  the  God  Priapus  and  the  God  Pan,  and  the 
latter  is  the  more  impracticable  of  the  two.  The  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  rehgion  is  the  mood  in  which  all 
the  differences  in  the  world  seem  to  become  unreal  in 
face  of  the  unity  of  God.  The  difference  between 
nature  and  spirit,  between  the  personal  and  the  im- 
personal, between  freedom  and  necessity,  between  what 
we  are  born  and  what  we  make  of  ourselves,  between 
corporate  responsibility  and  the  responsibility  of  the 
individual — the  difference  in  the  last  resort  of  right 
and  wrong — all  these  are  relative,  evanescent,  never  to 
be  fixed ;  they  dissolve,  when  we  try  to  grasp  them, 
in  a  kind  of  moral  or  non-moral  haze.  This  is  the 
supreme  illustratiouiof  the  truth  that  the  corruption  of 
the  best  is  worst ;  for  there  is  no  better  or  more  inspir- 
ing truth  than  that  of  the  dependence  of  all  being, 
natural  and  moral,  upon  God ;  and  no  error  more 
deadly  or  degrading  than  that  to  God  all  things  are 
alike.  It  is  against  the  temptation  to  let  the  truth 
which  he  has  just  recognized  in  such  moving  words  sink 
into  this  deadly  falsehood  that  the  soul  of  the  Psalmist 
reacts  with  instinctive  and  passionate  vehemence.     He 


ELEMENTAL  RELIGION  ii 

knows  that  the  world  and  every  human  being  in  it  are 
absolutely  dependent  upon  God ;  but  he  knows  also 
that  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  is  a  battle,  and  that 
it  is  the  Lord's  battle,  and  that  it  is  vital  to  be  on  the 
Lord's  side.  No  doubt  the  passion  with  which  he 
casts  himself  into  the  battle  is  less  than  Christian 
passion.  He  is  ready  to  kill  in  the  battle,  and  perhaps 
not  ready  to  die.  But  in  the  Lord's  battle  the  sign 
under  which  we  conquer  is  the  cross.  It  is  not  by 
shedding  the  blood  of  others,  but  by  the  sacrifice  of 
our  own  life,  that  we  can  contribute  to  the  Lord's 
victory.  But  where  the  Psalmist  is  right,  and  where 
we  must  not  fall  beneath  his  insight,  is  in  the  clear 
perception  that  the  reality  of  religion  involves  conflict 
— that  what  is  going  on  among  men  in  the  world  is  a 
battle  in  which  the  cause  of  God  is  at  stake — a  battle, 
and  not  a  sham  fight.  God  is  not  in  the  same  sense  on 
both  sides.  It  is  not  a  game  of  draughts  in  which  the 
same  hand  moves  the  blacks  and  the  whites.  It  is  a 
matter  of  life  and  death,  and  the  Psalmist  is  in  it  for 
life  or  death,  with  his  whole  heart.  So  must  every 
one  be  who  would  prove  what  the  presence  of  God  in 
life  means.  The  cross  of  Christ,  where  He  jiedJorth£ 
difference  between  right  and  wrong,  and  declared  it  to 
be  as  real  as  His  agony  and  passion,  teaches  the  same 
truth  as  the  vehement  Psalmist,  and  makes  the  same 
appeal.  "Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side?"  it  calls  to  us 
as  we  look  out  upon  life.  And  it  is  only  as  we  enlist 
under  that  ensign,  and  commit  ourselves  to  fight  the 
good  fight  to  the  last,  that  we  can  share  in  the  experi- 
ences which  inspired  this  wonderful  Psalm. 

There  is  something  peculiarly  touching  in  the  closing 
lines.     "  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart ;  try 


U 


12  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

me,  and  know  my  thoughts ;  and  see  if  there  be  any 
wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting." 
It  is  as  if  the  Psalmist  shrank  suddenly  from  his  own 
impetuosity,  felt  his  rashness  in  judging  others,  and 
realized  that  it  is  easier  to  slay  the  wicked  than  to  be 
inwardly  separated  from  sin.  In  this  humbler  mood  he 
does  not  shrink  from  God's  eye,  but  longs  for  it.  He 
feels  that  for  God  to  take  knowledge  of  him  is  his 
hope.  Salvation  does  not  come  from  his  zeal,  but  from 
the  Lord,  who  knows  him  altogether.  It  is  exactly  in 
the  key  in  which  the  Samaritan  woman  speaks  ot 
Jesus  :  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that 
ever  I  did  ;  is  not  this  the  Christ  ?  "  It  is  only  one  who 
knows  us  better  than  we  know  ourselves  who  can  give 
us  the  life  which  is  life  indeed. 


MAN'S  CLAIMS  IN  RELIGION,  AND  GOD'S 
RESPONSE.! 

"  Jews  ask  for  signs,  and  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  :  but  w^e  preach 
Christ  crucified  .  .  .  Christ  the  power  ol  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
God."— I.  Cor.  i.  22-24. 

Many  men,  many  minds,  says  the  proverb,  and  there 
is  no  department  of  human  affairs  in  which  it  is  more 
true  than  the  spiritual.  It  is  not,  as  it  has  been  scepti- 
cally put,  that  everyone  constructs  his  own  roman  de 
rinfini  to  suit  his  taste,  but  that  men  who  are  quite 
serious  have  their  own  ideas  of  what  religion  ought  to 
be.  They  know  what  they  want  it  to  do  for  them, 
and  they  think  they  know  the  proper  kind  of  evidence 
by  which  it  ought  to  be  supported.  If  it  does  not 
meet  the  conditions  they  prescribe,  they  feel  at  liberty 
to  withhold  their  assent  from  it.  This  is  not  done 
with  any  sense  of  arrogance,  but  naturally  and  as  a 
matter  of  course.  If  religion  does  not  meet  our  needs, 
if  it  does  not  come  supported  by  what  we  regard  as  the 
indispensable  evidence,  how  can  we  have  anything  to 
do  with  it  ?  It  does  not  occur  to  those  who  think  thus, 
that  they  are  prescribing  to  God  the  manner  in  which 
He  shall  make  Himself  known,  or  giving  Him  notice  of 
the  only  terms  on  which  they  will  recognize  Him.  Yet 
this  is  what  it  amounts  to.  And  while  in  all  such  opera- 
tions of  the  mind  man's  need  of  God  is  attested,  there 

^  A  communion  sermon. 
03) 


14  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

may  quite  possibly  be  something  in  them  which  God 
cannot  meet  in  the  way  required. 

In  his  work  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  Paul  en- 
countered many  types  of  mind,  and  in  this  text  he 
describes  the  two  chief.  "Jews  claim  signs,  and 
Greeks  are  in  quest  of  wisdom  ".  The  very  form  of  the 
sentence  shows  that  Jews  and  Greeks  are  to  be  taken, 
not  in  their  nationality,  but  as  representative  of  in- 
tellectual types ;  and  it  is  because  such  types  survive 
among  ourselves  that  we  can  make  a  profitable  applica- 
tion of  the  words. 

I.  Jews  claim  signs. — For  them  the  evidence  of 
religion  was  to  be  given  in  works  of  power.  They 
would  not  believe  in  God  unless  He  appealed  to  their 
senses  by  doing  something  extraordinary — something 
which  He  was  not  doing  meanwhile.  We  know  how 
constantly  this  demand  was  made  upon  our  Lord.  It 
was  a  temptation  which  beset  Him  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  His  ministry.  If  He  had  cast  Himself  down 
from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple  He  would  have  provided 
the  kind  of  evidence  for  His  mission  that  some  people 
required.  Show  us  a  sign  from  Heaven,  they  said  to 
Him  again  and  again.  Even  in  His  agony  they  taunted 
Him  with  His  inability  to  produce  that  proof  that  He 
was  from  God  which  they  were  entitled  to  claim.  "  If 
He  be  the  King  of  Israel  let  Him  now  come  down  from 
the  cross,  and  we  will  believe  Him."  The  modern 
equivalent  of  all  this  is  commoner  than  many  people 
think.  When  Carlyle  said  of  God,  the  God  in  whom 
Christians  believe,  **  He  does  nothing,"  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  precisely  this  mental  temper.  It  is  the  temper 
of  all  to  whom  it  is  a  religious  difficulty  that  there  is  a 
constitution  and  course  of  nature  and  of  human  life  in 


MAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     15 

which  things  go  on  according  to  general  laws,  and  in 
which  there  is  much  that  is  baffling,  mysterious,  and 
unjust.  If  we  are  to  believe  in  God,  they  say,  let  Him 
do  something.  Let  Him  signalize  His  presence  in  the 
world  by  wonderful  works  of  power.  **We  see  not 
our  signs."  Let  Him  make  bare  His  holy  arm ;  let  Him 
break  the  oppressor  in  pieces,  heal  the  terrible  diseases 
that  fill  us  with  fear  and  humiliation,  interpose  visibly 
and  decisively  to  arrest  wrong ;  let  Him  satisfy  this 
natural  and  legitimate  demand  for  an  exhibition  of  His 
power,  and  we  will  believe  in  Him.  But  apparentl}^  He 
does  not  do  so.  As  far  as  such  signal  demonstrations 
are  concerned,  all  things  go  on  as  they  have  done  since 
the  beginning  of  the  creation.  Some  people  call  this 
a  trial  to  faith ;  others  describe  it  as  an  objection  to 
religion  ;  but  there  it  is.  God  does  not  accept  the 
dictation  of  the  Jew  in  us  as  to  the  way  in  which  He  is 
to  make  Himself  known. 

2.  Greeks  seek  after  ivisdom. — As  distinct  from  natures 
which  crave  a  demonstration  of  power,  there  are  those 
which  long  for  nothing  so  much  as  a  key  to  the  world 
and  to  the  life  of  man.  This  is  what  they  want  in 
religion,  and  they  will  not  look  at  anything  as  religion 
which  does  not  put  such  a  key  into  their  hands.  The 
Greeks  are  a  type  of  this  class.  They  are  the  most 
intellectual  people  known  to  history.  We  owe  to 
them  all  that  we  call  philosophy  and  science.  They 
beheved  in  the  mind,  in  its  powers,  its  duties,  its  right 
to  be  sincerely  dealt  with  and  to  have  its  legitimate 
demands  met.  Even  in  religion  they  sought  intel- 
lectual satisfaction.  They  wanted  its  preachers  to 
have  excellency  of  speech  and  of  wisdom.  They 
required  of  religion  itself  to  give  them  an  intellectual 


i6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

grasp  of  the  world  in  which  they  lived,  an  intelligible 
interpretation  of  it ;  what  was  it  good  for  if  it  did  not 
do  so,  justifying  the  ways  of  God  to  man,  solving  the 
problems  which  vexed  both  brain  and  conscience, 
reconciling  man  intellectually  to  his  environment  ?  It 
hardly  needs  to  be  stated  that  this  type  of  mind  is 
common  enough.  It  is  represented  more  or  less  ade- 
quately by  every  one  who  has  what  are  called  intel- 
lectual difficulties  about  religion.  A  poet  of  our  own 
day  speaks  about  the  burden  and  the  mystery  of  all  this 
unintelligible  world,  and  what  many  really  crave  in 
religion  is  such  a  light  upon  its  nature  and  destiny  as 
will  alleviate  the  burden  and  dissipate  the  mystery. 
A  religion  that  does  not  bring  such  a  light,  that  does 
not  yield  a  rational  explanation  of  nature  and  of  human 
life,  is  not  for  them.  Perhaps  the  most  signal  illustra- 
tion of  this  is  that  great  estrangement  from  the  Chris- 
tian faith  commonly  known  as  Agnosticism.  The 
Agnostic  is  a  man  who  has  been  bafQed  in  the  Greek 
quest  for  wisdom,  and  has  given  up  religion  as  the 
sphere  of  insoluble  problems.  He  is  a  Greek,  with  a 
natural  instinct  for  wisdom,  which  disappointment  has 
paralyzed.  He  no  longer  seeks  wisdom  ;  he  has  aban- 
doned such  vain  adventures;  he  stays  at  home  and 
realizes,  with  such  resignation  as  he  can  command, 
how  poorly  the  house  is  furnished.  God  does  not 
meet  his  claim,  any  more  than  that  of  the  Jew,  in  the 
way  which  he  prescribes.  There  may  be  a  key  to  all 
mysteries,  but  it  is  not  put  in  his  hand  to  start  with. 

This  apparently  negative  attitude  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  claims  of  Jew  and  Greek  has,  I  believe,  misled 
many.  The  impression  left  on  their  minds  is  that  the 
true  religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  signs  or  with 


MAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     17 

wisdom :  it  reveals  a  God  to  whom  miracles  and 
philosophy  are  alike  indifferent.  He  does  not  signal- 
ize His  presence  by  works  of  power;  He  does  not 
cast  an  interpretative  light  on  the  mystery  of  the 
world.  But  this  is  a  mistake,  due  to  breaking  off  in 
the  middle  of  the  Apostle's  sentence.  The  demands  ot 
the  Jew  and  of  the  Greek  are  in  a  sense  just,  and  a 
true  religion  must  be  able  to  meet  them.  There  must 
be  power  in  God,  and  therefore  in  the  true  religion ; 
there  must  be  wisdom  in  God,  and  therefore  the 
true  religion  must  have  a  key  to  the  world,  a  way  of 
looking  at  life  in  which  the  mind  can  rest.  These  are 
not  presumptuous  but  legitimate  demands,  and  the 
Apostle  does  not  repel  them  :  the  very  claim  he  makes 
for  his  Gospel  is  that  it  meets  them.  It  meets  them 
indeed  in  a  way  so  startling  as  to  be  at  first  sight 
almost  incredible,  but  it  does  meet  them.  "  We  preach 
Christ  crucified  .  .  .  Christ  the  poiver  of  God  and  the 
zvisdom  of  God  " — the  very  thing  which  Jews  and 
Greeks  required.  Jews  claim  signs  ?  Well,  if  you 
want  to  see  all  that  God  can  do,  the  supreme  demons- 
tration of  His  power,  look  at  Christ  on  His  cross,  and 
at  what  God  accomplishes  through  Him.  Greeks  are 
in  quest  of  wisdom  ?  Once  more,  if  you  want  to  find 
the  key  to  the  world's  perplexities,  to  see  the  very 
splendour  of  the  light  with  which  God  lightens  up  its 
gloomiest  and  most  oppressive  mysteries,  look  at 
Christ  on  His  cross.  The  one  heart-breaking  and 
hopeless  mystery  of  life  is  sin  ;  the  one  thing  in  pres- 
ence of  which  it  vanishes  is  redeeming  love,  the  love  re- 
vealed in  the  crucified  Son  of  God.  Man's  claim  upon 
God  for  a  demonstration  of  power  and  wisdom  is  not 
repelled ;  it  is  fully  met  and  satisfied — but  at  the  cross. 


1 8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

No  doubt  it  is  very  difficult  to  take  this  in,  and  it 
was  probably  more  difficult  for  those  who  could 
distinctly  envisage  crucifixion  and  its  horrors  than  it  is 
for  us.  Crucifixion  was  public  execution,  the  shameful 
death  of  the  lowest  criminals.  The  Jewish  name  of 
contempt  for  Jesus  was  "  the  hanged  ".  But  the  re- 
pulsiveness  has  been  felt  under  all  circumstances,  and 
the  temptation  has  often  come  to  the  church  to  ignore 
or  to  spiritualize  what  the  Apostle  here  puts  into  the 
forefront  as  God's  answer  to  man's  need — the  real 
person,  and  the  real  and  shameful  death  of  Christ,  re- 
corded in  the  Gospels.  One  of  the  purposes  served 
by  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  we  celebrate  to-day,  is 
to  provide  a  check  to  such  tendencies.  At  first  sight 
it  seems  strange  to  find  this  material  element,  so  to 
speak,  in  a  spiritual  religion.  It  is  so  inconsistent, 
apparently,  with  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  that  some  Christians  like  the  Quakers  disregard 
it,  and  many  in  all  the  churches  are  embarrassed  by  it, 
and  even  when  they  observe  it  do  not  know  what  to 
think  of  it,  and  could  wish  they  did  not  need  to  think 
of  it  at  all.  But  in  any  case  it  does  this  for  us  :  it 
brings  us  back  whether  we  will  or  not  to  the  heart  of 
the  revelation  on  which  our  religion  rests  :  Christ 
crucified.  As  often  as  we  eat  this  bread  and  drink 
this  cup  we  show  the  Lord's  death.  We  are  with- 
drawn from  all  our  prepossessions  about  God,  from  all 
the  requirements  we  address  to  Him,  from  all  our  pre- 
conceptions as  to  the  way  in  which  He  must  or  ought 
to  act,  and  are  set  down  before  the  reality  which 
shows  us  how  it  has  actually  pleased  Him  to  display 
His  power  and  His  wisdom  to  men.  Here,  however 
startling  it  may  be,  is  the  seat  of  God's  omnipotence  ; 


MAN'S,  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     19 

here  and  nowhere  else  is  the  key  to  all  that  is  mys- 
sterious  in  life. 

We  must  notice  that  the  power  is  uniformly  put 
first :  it  is  of  it  that  we  first  have  experience,  and  it  is 
only  through  it  that  we  have  access  to  the  wisdom. 
You  want  an  almighty  God,  the  Apostle  says.  Where 
then  can  you  find  God  exerting  omnipotent  power, 
doing  what  it  baffles  every  other  power  in  the  uni- 
verse to  do,  except  here  ?  If  a  child  were  asked  to 
point  to  the  signs  of  God's  power,  he  might  naturally 
think  of  the  storm  which  tosses  the  sea  and  the  ships  ; 
or  of  the  earthquake  which  levels  cities  in  a  moment 
and  engulfs  the  pride  of  man ;  or  of  the  lightning 
flash  which  shatters  trees  and  towers.  Those  who 
are  no  longer  children  know  better  than  this  even 
about  the  forces  of  nature.  They  know  that  the 
fiercest  storm  which  ever  swept  the  ocean  has  no 
power  in  it  at  all  compared  with  the  silent  irresistible 
swell  of  the  tide.  They  know  that  the  earthquakes 
which  appalled  the  world  at  Lisbon  and  Messina  were 
insignificant  forces  compared  with  the  invisible  pull 
of  the  sun  which  holds  the  planets  in  their  orbits. 
They  know  that  no  thunderbolt  has  potency  in  it  to 
compare  with  the  sunshine  in  which  we  bask  on  a 
summer  morning.  And  they  know  also,  if  they  know 
anything  of  themselves  and  their  necessities,  that  God 
has  more  wonderful  and  difficult  things  to  do  than  can 
be  done  by  storm  or  tide,  by  earthquake  or  gravitation, 
by  lightning  or  sunshine.  He  has  to  make  bad  men 
good.  He  has  to  win  again  those  who  have  been 
alienated  from  him  by  an  evil  life.  He  has  to  reach 
their  hearts  through  a  bad  conscience,  and  without 
weakening   conscience,  nay  while   vindicating   all  its 


20  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

claims,  He  has  to  prevail  with  them  to  come  to  Himself. 
He  has  to  overcome  the  distrust  and  fear  of  men,  and 
to  evoke  their  confidence.  He  has  to  subdue  them  to 
penitence,  to  faith,  to  devotion.  He  has  to  do  this  not 
for  one,  but  for  all ;  He  has  to  reconcile  the  world  to 
Himself.  It  needs  an  inconceivable  power  to  do  that — 
a  power  far  more  wonderful  than  any  that  could  be 
exerted  through  nature,  whether  in  mercy  or  in  wrath. 
To  fill  men's  hearts  with  food  and  gladness  would  not  do 
it;  to  blight  them  with  pestilence  and  famine  would 
not  do  it.  But  God  does  it  through  Christ  crucified. 
There,  at  the  cross,  he  wields  a  power  far  more  wonder- 
ful than  any  of  which  the  Jews  dreamed— a  supernatural 
power  transcending  everything  that  could  have  been 
displayed  in  such  signs  as  they  claimed — an  unmistak- 
able, immeasurable.  Divine  power  :  a  final  guarantee 
of  the  presence  of  God. 

Paul  knew  this  from  his  experience  as  a  preacher, 
and  it  was  because  he  knew  it  he  magnified  his  calling. 
"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel,  for  it  is  a  Divine 
power  to  save  all  who  believe."  He  had  seen  its 
efficacy,  when  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  through  a 
ministry  of  more  than  twenty  years.  We  have  entered 
now  on  the  twentieth  Christian  century,  and  as  we 
look  back  on  that  long  stretch  of  time  we  can  say  that 
the  supreme  power  in  the  world  for  good  from  the 
beginning  of  it  till  this  day  has  been  the  power  of 
Christ  crucified.  All  reconciling,  regenerating,  healing 
influences  which  have  blessed  the  world  have  had  their 
seat  and  centre  in  the  cross.  And  is  it  not  possible 
for  us  to  add  our  individual  testimony  to  the  great 
testimony  borne  by  history  ?  When  we  are  bad — 
when  we  are  selfish,  angry,  indolent,  indulgent,   un- 


.     MAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     21 

godly — can  we  keep  it  up  in  the  presence  of  Christ 
crucified  ?  Or  if  we  are  determined  to  keep  it  up, 
must  we  not  shut  our  eyes  to  this  great  sight,  or  go  to 
some  place  where  it  sinks  below  the  horizon  ?  To 
give  it  the  opportunity  of  telling  upon  us — to  expose 
ourselves  to  the  power  which  issues  from  it — is  to  give 
it  the  victory.  This  is  what  we  profess  to-day  as  we 
gather  round  the  Lord's  Table.  We  long  to  be  better 
men  and  women,  to  get  dominion  over  our  sins,  to  be 
thoroughly  right  with  God.  We  long  for  truer  peni- 
tence, for  more  whole-hearted,  loving,  devoted  obedi- 
ence to  God.  Where  in  all  the  world  is  the  Divine 
power  to  be  found  which  can  work  these  miracles  in 
us  ?  It  is  to  be  found — this  is  the  very  meaning  of 
the  Supper — in  Christ  crucified.  Our  one  hope  for 
all  this  is  that  He  may  become  dominant  in  us,  estab- 
lishing His  ascendency  in  our  hearts.  The  power  of 
God  to  save,  the  highest  and  divinest  power  God  can 
exercise,  is  the  power  manifested  in  His  Passion  and 
operating  through  it.  The  Lord  reigns  from  the  tree. 
This  is  the  paradoxical  but  sufficient  answer  of  God  to 
all  who  ask  signs.  He  is  working  wonders  all  the 
time  which  transcend  any  of  which  nature  could  be 
the  scene ;  and  to  them,  the  miracles  wrought  by  the 
Passion  of  Jesus,  the  final  appeal  lies. 

Let  us  look  now  at  the  Gospel  as  God's  response 
to  those  who  seek  wisdom  :  Christ  crucified  .  .  .  the 
wisdom  of  God.  Wisdom  is  always  a  hard  word,  and 
perhaps  it  is  not  possible  for  us  to  be  sure  of  what 
precisely  it  meant  to  the  Apostle.  But  we  know  in 
what  direction  to  look  for  the  meaning.  We  know 
generally  that  wisdom  is  that  which  enables  us  to 
recognize  the  end  if  not  the  plan  of  life — that  it  is  that 


22  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

which  brings  light  to  its  mysteries,  and  even  in  our 
dark  strivings  makes  us  conscious  of  the  right  way. 

The  great  mystery  of  hfe,  in  presence  of  which  the 
others  hardly  count,  is  sin.  This  is  the  one  thing 
which  after  all  speculation  remains  opaque  and  im- 
penetrable. No  reason  can  cast  the  faintest  gleam  of 
real  light  upon  it.  Those  who  explain  it  as  a  mere 
negation,  an  unreality — those  who  regard  it  simply  as 
an  imperfection,  and  to  be  outgrown — those  who  tell 
us  it  is  but  good  in  the  making,  and  that  a  bad  con- 
science is  the  growing  pains  of  the  soul — are  all  alike, 
when  the  conscience  listens  to  them,  madmen.  It  is 
they  who  are  unreal,  and  whose  ingenuities  appal  by 
their  frivolity  and  irrelevance  the  soul  which  is  actually 
at  grips  with  evil.  But  though  no  philosophy  as  such 
has  ever  been  able  to  rationahze  sin,  though  in  a  world 
created  and  sustained  by  a  good  God  it  is  and  remains 
an  enigma  to  the  mind,  at  the  cross  some  light  falls 
upon  it :  we  see  that  whatever  its  origin,  God  takes 
the  burden  of  it  on  Himself  He  does  not  stand  afar 
off,  and  decline  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  sinful 
world  which  owes  to  Him  its  being.  He  bears  its  sin. 
He  enters  into  the  situation  sin  has  created.  He  takes 
the  pain,  the  shame,  the  death  it  involves,  upon  Him- 
self:  and  in  so  doing  He  overcomes  it  and  enables  us 
to  overcome.  The  only  thing  which  goes  any  way  to 
make  sin  intelligible — in  other  words,  the  only  thing 
which  in  this  connexion  puts  wisdom  even  imaginably 
within  our  reach — is  redemption.  It  is  not  a  new 
thought,  or  a  new  combination  of  thoughts  ;  it  is  wofi 
anything  which  the  mind  could  compass  by  its  own 
efforts ;  it  is  a  new  fact ;  a  new  revelation  of  reality 
given  in  a  mighty  act  of  God.       Here  is  wisdom  for  a 


MAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     23 

world  baffled  and  stupefied  by  sin  :  here,  in  the  re- 
demption which  is  in  Christ  crucified,  sin  gets  at  last 
a  meaning  as  a  foil  to  grace,  and  God's  love  shines  out 
with  a  power  and  splendour  which  but  for  sin  we 
could  not  have  conceived. 

Difficult  as  the  idea  of  wisdom  is,  there  are  two 
ideas  which  are  always  involved  in  it — unity  and  pur- 
pose ;  and  Christ  crucified  appears  as  the  wisdom  of 
God  in  this  respect  also,  that  through  the  power  which 
issues  from  Him  unity  and  purpose  are  brought  into 
our  lives.  Many  people  are  conscious  that  their  life 
has  neither ;  it  is  fragmentary  and  aimless  ;  they  do 
one  thing  and  then  another,  but  they  have  no  domin- 
ant motive,  no  chief  end.  Life  is  a  thing  of  shreds 
and  patches,  dissipated  in  a  hundred  inconsistent 
directions  :  there  is  no  wisdom  in  it,  no  worthy  end, 
method,  or  plan.  They  will  never  be  happy,  they 
will  never  feel  that  they  have  found  the  key  to  life, 
nay  they  never  will  find  it,  till  something  enters  into 
their  being  which  enables  them  to  say  :  This  one  thing 
I  do.  And  this  they  will  never  say  till  their  life  comes 
under  the  power  of  Christ  crucified.  Ihe  life  con- 
summated in  that  death  is  great  enough,  comprehensive 
enough,  commanding  enough,  to  gather  our  little  lives 
into  its  vast  eternal  sweep,  and  to  bear  them  on  to 
God.  It  has  absolute  unity,  absolute  certainty  of 
itself  and  of  its  goal,  absolute  consistency  and  worth. 
When  Christ  crucified  subdues  and  impels  us — when 
we  can  say  with  the  Apostle,  I  live  no  longer  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me — -we  are  delivered  from  inconsist- 
ency, futility,  and  folly,  and  made  wise  with  the  wisdom 
of  God. 

Under  the  guidance  of  the  Apostle  we  may  take 


24  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

one  step  further,  and  try  to  look  not  at  the  blackness 
of  sin,  nor  at  the  perplexed  individual  life,  but  at  the 
whole  world  of  nature  in  the  light  cast  by  the  cross. 
We  are  quite  familiar  with  the  interpretation  of  nature 
which  is  given  by  science,  and  in  which  everything  is 
explained  by  reference  to  antecedent  conditions.  In 
the  nature  of  things  such  explanation  is  endless. 
Science  can  never  answer  all  its  own  questions,  and 
even  if  it  had  done  so  a  further  question  remains,  the 
only  question  the  answer  to  which  raises  us  from  the 
world  of  science  into  that  of  wisdom  :  What  is  all  this 
world  of  nature  for  ?  We  are  overwhelmed  by  its 
vastness — its  boundless  spaces,  its  immeasurable  dura- 
tion, its  inexhaustible  life  :  is  there  any  key  to  it  ?  Has 
it  any  unity  or  purpose  ?  is  there  any  intelligible  law 
which  pervades  it  all  and  directs  it  to  one  end  ?  Paul 
is  bold  enough,  and  I  admit  it  is  the  utmost  reach  of 
boldness  of  which  the  human  mind  is  capable,  to 
answer  all  these  questions  in  the  affirmative,  and  to 
say  that  he  knows  the  supreme  law  of  the  world,  and 
that  he  has  found  it  at  the  cross.  What  is  revealed 
there  is  redeeming  love,  and  it  is  revealed  as  the  last 
reality  in  the  universe,  the  eternal  truth  of  what  God 
is.  It  is  before  the  foundation  of  the  world ;  nay  the 
very  foundations  of  the  world  are  laid  in  it.  Christ 
is  the  key  to  creation ;  nature  is  constituted  to  be  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom.  This  is  not  science,  but  wisdom 
— this  conviction  that  in  Him  were  all  things  created, 
and  that  all  things  therefore  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  Him  ;  this  assurance  that  things 
visible  and  invisible,  things  past  and  to  come,  all  times 
and  spaces  and  all  that  fill  them,  are  the  destined  in- 
heritance of  the  crucified  Christ. 


MAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  GOD'S  RESPONSE     25 

If  anyone  is  disposed  to  repel  all  this  in  words  like 
the  Psalmist's — such  knowledge  is  too  strange  for  me  ; 
it  is  high  ;  I  cannot  attain  unto  it — I  admit  it  is  not 
easy.  But  the  simple  fact  about  Christ  crucified  is 
that  when  He  enters  into  our  life  it  is  to  fill  all  things. 
He  will  be  everything  or  nothing.  It  is  His  destiny 
to  have  all  things  put  under  His  feet,  and  it  is  our  only 
wisdom  to  look  at  all  things  in  this  light.  Think  what 
it  means  to  say :  We  preach  Christ  crucified.  Here, 
in  this  place,  at  this  hour,  he  is  held  up  on  His  cross, 
the  Son  of  God,  bearing  the  sin  of  the  world.  You 
wish  to  know  the  final  truth  about  God  ?  Here  it  is, 
eternal  love,  bearing  sin.  Can  you  think  of  a  power 
so  wonderful  as  tliairwhich  bears  the  sin  of  the  whole 
world  ?  a  power  so  able  to  regenerate  you,  and  to  put 
the  key  of  life,  and  of  all  the  mysteries  with  which  it 
confronts  you,  into  your  hand  ?  Can  you  want  any- 
thing better  to  trust,  anything  worthier  to  inspire, 
anything  abler  to  throw  upon  all  the  dark  places  of 
life  the  light  of  hope  and  joy  ?  There  is  not  anything. 
It  is  here  or  nowhere  we  must  learn  what  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  God  mean  ;  and  whatever  we  may  have 
been  seeking  or  expecting  or  claiming,  it  is  here,  in 
the  presence  of  Christ  crucified,  that  the  voice  of  God 
comes  to  us  at  last  :  **  Look  unto  Me  and  be  ye  saved, 
all  the  ends  of  the  earth  :  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none 
else." 


KNOWLEDGE,   NOT  MYSTERY,  THE  BASIS 
OF  RELIGION. 

"  The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  :  but  those  things 
that  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and  to  our  children  for  ever, 
that  we  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  law."— Deut.  xxix.  29. 

The  secret  things  spoken  of  in  this  verse  are  in  the 
first  instance  the  destiny  of  the  Jewish  people.  After 
the  law  has  been  proclaimed,  the  lawgiver  enlarges 
upon  the  consequences  of  obedience  and  disobedience  ; 
he  pronounces  blessings  on  those  who  keep  it,  and 
curses  on  those  who  disregard  it ;  in  particular,  he 
threatens  the  most  terrible  judgments  upon  the  moral 
scepticism  which  laughs  at  the  promise  or  the  menace 
of  God,  and  confidently  takes  its  own  way  as  though 
God  had  never  spoken  or  would  not  keep  His  word. 
He  declares  frankly  that  we  do  not  know  how  or 
when  the  promises  or  threatenings  will  take  effect : 
that  is  the  secret  thing  which  belongs  to  God  alone  ; 
but  the  nation  is  under  law  to  God  nevertheless, 
a  law  which  is  perfectly  well  known ;  and  it  is  this 
which  determines  its  duty.  Ignorant  as  men  are  of 
the  course  of  providence,  of  the  means  which  God 
will  employ  to  react  against  rebellion  and  crush  it,  of 
the  quarter  of  the  sky  in  which  the  thunder  clouds  of  His 
judgment  will  accumulate ;  ignorant  as  they  are  also 
of  a  thousand  things  which  at  once  solicit  and  baffle 
the  mind,  and  by  doing  so  seem  to  disable  it  for  action, 

(26) 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION     27 

there  is  one  thing  of  which  they  are  not  ignorant — the 
law  of  God.  This  has  been  revealed  to  us  and  to  our 
children  for  ever.  It  is  an  unchanging  and  infaUible 
guide  through  worlds  and  ages  yet  unborn.  And  it  is 
given  to  us  that  we  may  do  it. 

The  fortune  or  the  destiny  of  nations  is  always  an 
interesting  subject  for  speculation.  The  story  of  the 
rise  and  fall  of  powers  like  Babylon,  Egypt,  Tyre, 
Carthage,  Rome,  Venice,  fascinates  the  historian  and 
the  moralist ;  even  for  the  thoughtless  it  is  a  magnifi- 
cent picture,  and  for  the  wise  it  is  a  revelation.  It 
verifies  the  word  of  God  which  speaks  to  us  in  this 
chapter ;  it  shows  us  in  a  thousand  ways  that  vice  is 
the  worm  at  the  root  of  a  nation's  strength,  and  that 
righteousness  alone  makes  nations  great.  Often  we 
meet  with  speculations  on  the  future  of  our  own 
country  or  of  its  contemporaries  and  rivals.  We  are 
invited  to  see  a  greater  Britain  grow  continually 
greater,  until  a  federation  of  English-speaking  peoples 
controls  the  affairs  of  the  world,  with  a  pleasing  con- 
sciousness of  having  only  obtained  their  due ;  or  to 
see  the  worn-out  British  race,  stripped  of  its  ships,  its 
colonies  and  its  commerce,  sinking  to  an  inglorious 
end.  These  speculations  are  precisely  what  is  meant 
here  when  we  read,  the  secret  things  belong  unto  the 
Lord  our  God  :  as  far  as  we  are  concerned,  the  book 
of  the  future  is  sealed  with  seven  seals.  But  our  duty 
is  not  affected  by  that.  Though  we  cannot  tell  the 
fortunes  of  the  nation  beforehand,  we  can  tell  on  what 
they  depend.  We  know  that  obedience  to  the  law  of 
God  has  the  promise  of  the  future.  We  know  that 
industry,  sobriety,  justice,  charity,  are  the  strength  of 
the  community ;  we  know  that  pride,  fullness  of  bread, 


28  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

and  abundance  of  idleness,  are  its  death.  We  know 
that  no  nation  can  prosper  in  drunkenness  and  un- 
cleanness,  in  luxury  and  insolence,  in  the  deification 
of  might  and  the  contempt  of  right ;  and  this  know- 
ledge is  given  for  our  guidance.  It  never  goes  out  of 
fashion.  It  is  as  true  now  as  in  the  days  of  Moses — 
as  true  in  Britain  as  in  Israel — as  true  in  the  capitals 
of  modern  commerce  as  in  Carthage  or  in  Venice — as 
true  of  nations  as  of  individuals,  that  only  those  who 
do  the  will  of  God  abide  for  ever. 

It  is  permissible  to  generalize  this  truth,  and  to  point 
the  applications  of  it  which  are  pertinent  to  ourselves. 
Religion,  it  means,  does  not  depend  on  the  things  we 
are  ignorant  of,  but  on  the  things  we  know.  Its  basis 
is  revelation,  not  mystery ;  and  it  is  not  affected  by 
the  fact  that  mysteries  abound.  Little  as  we  know, 
and  much  as  we  are  ignorant  of,  our  responsibility  for 
what  we  know  is  unqualified.  I  do  not  think  it  is  pos- 
sible to  overstate  either  the  dimensions  of  our  ignor- 
ance, or  the  urgency  of  our  responsibihty  for  acting 
up  to  what  we  know.  There  is  always  a  temptation 
to  let  the  first  of  these  depress  our  interest  in  the 
second  ;  ignorance — sometimes  erected  into  a  principle 
and  designated  Agnosticism — falls  like  a  heavy  frost  on 
morality  and  religion.  It  takes  the  pith  and  virtue 
out  of  them.  Now  what  Scripture  here  teaches  is 
that  this  is  wrong.  The  most  perplexed  and  baffled 
man,  the  man  who  has  most  certainly  come  to  the 
limit  of  his  insight  and  who  is  most  appalled  by  the 
opaqueness  of  the  future,  knows  something ;  and  it  is 
on  his  action  in  view  of  that  knowledge  that  his  relation 
to  God  depends.  He  is  not  to  be  tested  by  what  he 
does  not  understand  in  the  infinite  scheme  of  the  uni- 
verse, but  by  how  he  faces  the  responsibility  imposed 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION     29 

on  him  by  what  he  knows.     A  few  illustrations  will 
make  plain  what  this  means. 

Many  of  us  are  interested  not  only  in  our  country, 
but  in  the  Church,  and  much  as  we  should  like  to  see 
into  the  future  must  acknowledge  that  it  is  very  im- 
penetrable.   How  long  can  the  Churches  go  on  upon  the 
present  footing,  and  in  their  present  relations  to  each 
other  ?     What  prospect  is  there  of  closer  relations  be- 
tween them  ?     Do  such  closer  relations  depend  in  any 
degree  on  all  Christians  being  gathered  into  one  organ- 
ization, or  may  they  come  to  pass  through  the  dis- 
covery   that   modes   of  organization   are    matters   of 
comparative  indifference,  and  that  Christians  may  be 
thoroughly  one,  in  the  only  sense  in  which  Christ  is 
interested  in  their  unity,  though  they  are  organized  in 
many   different   and    independent   ways  ?      Are    the 
masses  of  the  population  which  are  at  present  outside 
all  the  Churches  going  to  be  brought  within  the  exist- 
ing  organizations,   or  will  the  Gospel  perhaps  take 
root  among  them  in  ways  unexampled  hitherto,  devel- 
oping new  types  of  thought,  of  organization,  and  of 
moral  effort  ?     Will  Christ  establish  His  ascendancy 
upon  the  earth  in  ways  no  one  has  dreamt  of  ?    Will  the 
words  He  spoke  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem — "There 
shall  not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another  " — be  spoken 
of  our  Churches?  or  what  will  their  future  be  ?    These 
are  simply  questions  which  we  cannot  answer.     They 
are  like  the  question  the  disciples  put  to  Jesus  after  the 
Resurrection  :   "  Lord,  dost  Thou  at  this  time  restore 
again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  "    The  answers  belong  to 
the  things  which  the  Father  has  kept  in  His  own  power. 
But  our  ignorance  does  not  in  the  least  affect  our  duty, 
and  when  such  questions  rise  in  our  minds,  we  have 
only  to  recall  how  Jesus  answered  the  disciples :  "  Ye 


30  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me  ".  Even  if  the  future  were 
revealed  to  us  beforehand  it  would  not  be  intelligible  : 
it  is  only  as  we  grow  up  to  things  and  live  through 
them  that  they  enter  into  our  minds.  I  once  heard  a 
missionary  say,  "  I  don't  know  how  India  is  to  be  evan- 
gelized, but  I  know  we  are  evangelizing  it " ;  and  we 
must  say  something  similar  of  our  own  country.  We 
cannot  predict  and  cannot  effectually  plan  the  future  of 
the  Christian  societies  in  Britain ;  but  if  we  use  them 
to  penetrate  life  with  testimony  to  Jesus,  we  may  be 
sure  they  will  not  fail,  and  that  no  future  will  leave  the 
soul  without  a  home. 

Cognate  to  this  is  a  question  which  has  also  exercised 
many  minds  and  has  had  serious  practical  consequences 
— the  question  of  the  future  of  those  who  die  without 
having  heard  the  Gospel.  It  was  once  believed  in  the 
Church  that  the  heathen  who  die  in  their  heathen  state 
perish  everlastingly,  without  exception  and  without 
hope.  Every  time  the  clock  ticks,  it  was  said,  a  soul 
passes  out  of  time  into  eternity,  and  all  over  heathendom 
that  means  passes  from  earth  to  hell.  Every  twenty- 
four  hours  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  thousand  souls  die 
this  awful  death.  This  belief  was  regarded  if  not  as 
the  only,  yet  as  the  most  urgent  and  imperative  motive 
of  missions;  it  was  under  the  constraint  of  it  that  mis- 
sions were  first  organized  in  modern  times,  and  it  was 
assumed  as  an  unquestionable  piece  of  Christian  faith. 
No  one,  we  are  well  aware,  would  give  it  this  place 
any  longer.  What  the  future  of  the  heathen  is,  and 
how  it  is  related  to  their  present,  we  simply  cannot  tell. 
The  curtain  that  falls  at  death  is  as  impenetrable  for 
us  as  it  was  for  the  first  man,  and  we  cannot  see  past 
it  a  single  inch.  But  our  duty  to  the  heathen  does  not 
depend  upon  what  we  do  not  know,  but  upon  what  we 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION      31 

do ;  and  that  is  clear  enough  to  supply  all  the  motives 
for  missions  that  we  need.  We  know  the  life  that 
human  beings  lead  where  the  name  of  Jesus  is  un- 
known :  its  darkness,  poverty,  degradation,  despair. 
We  know  what  our  own  Hfe  would  be  if  everything 
were  taken  out  of  it  which  it  owes  to  Him — all  our 
Christian  convictions,  our  Christian  hopes,  our  Chris- 
tian ideals,  affections,  and  energies.  We  know  how 
much  Christ  could  be  to  the  heathen,  and  experience 
has  taught  us  how  much  they  could  be  to  Him.  We 
know  what  treasures  of  devotion,  of  faith  and  love  and 
obedience,  he  has  already  found  in  the  hearts  of  men 
of  all  races — black  and  red  and  yellow  as  well  as  white. 
We  know  that  God  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved.  We 
know  that  it  is  our  Lord's  will  that  repentance  and 
rem.ission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name  to 
all  nations.  We  know  what  the  dictate  of  love  is. 
We  are  debtors  to  all  our  brethren  of  mankind ;  we 
owe  them  the  Gospel.  And  whatever  it  may  mean  to 
them  in  the  future  not  to  have  heard  it  while  they  lived 
— a  question  to  which  we  can  give  no  answer  whatever 
— it  is  certainly  a  grave  sin  in  us  if  we  have  it  and  keep 
it  to  ourselves.  We  have  every  motive  to  missions  in 
what  we  know,  and  as  against  this  our  ignorance  does 
not  count  at  all. 

To  pass  to  a  somewhat  different  illustration,  many 
people  are  exercised  about  the  future  of  their  children 
more  than  about  anything  else  that  God  has -kept  to 
Himself.  They  would  like  to  know  how  their  sons 
will  bear  themselves  in  the  battle  of  life,  and  especi- 
ally how  they  will  face  its  temptations.  Will  they 
pass  victorious  where  their  fathers  stumbled  and  fell  ? 
or  will  their  fathers  be  humbled  and  horrified  to  see 
their  old  sins  looking  out  on  them  from  the  eyes  of 


32  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

their  sons  ?  What  kind  of  settlement  will  their 
daughters  have  in  the  days  to  come  ?  Will  they 
marry,  and  happily  ?  or  will  it  be  necessary  to  make 
them  independent  of  any  resources  but  their  own  ? 
If  only  we  knew  what  to  provide  against !  Of  all 
these  things  we  neither  know  nor  can  know  anything  : 
the  future  is  wholly  in  the  hand  of  God.  But  we  do 
know  what  is  the  will  of  God  both  for  ourselves  and 
for  those  who  come  after  us  ;  and  it  is  what  we  know 
that  fixes  our  duty.  Above  all  other  books  in  the 
Bible,  Deuteronomy  is  the  book  of  religious  education 
and  of  the  promises  attached  to  it.  "These  words 
which  I  command  thee  this  day  shall  be  upon  thine 
heart :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thy  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up."  No 
duty  could  be  enforced  more  urgently,  and  in  our 
blank  ignorance  of  the  future  there  is  none  upon 
which  so  much  depends.  If  we  want  to  have  any  in- 
surance against  its  painful  possibilities,  it  is  here  we 
must  find  it.  What  God  requires  of  parents  is  not  a 
provision  for  the  future  of  their  children  which  enables 
them  to  defy  Providence,  but  such  a  training  of  their 
children  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  in  obedience  to 
Him  as  will  make  them  secure  of  God's  friendship. 
It  is  a  training  to  do  all  the  words  of  this  law,  and 
where  it  has  been  effectively  given  the  future  may  be 
safely  left  with  God. 

Apart  from  these  particular  cases,  in  which  ignor- 
ance of  the  future  does  not  affect  our  present  duty, 
there  is  ignorance  of  a  more  fundamental  kind  which 
has  sometimes  perplexed  men  in  their  religious  life, 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION     33 

and  sometimes  even  had  fatal  consequences.  I  mean 
the  kind  of  ignorance  in  which  we  are  not  only  with- 
out knowledge,  but  are  oppressed  with  the  idea  of 
mystery ;  as  though  we  were  in  contact  with  some- 
thing which  was  not  simply  unknown,  but  never  could 
come  within  the  sphere  of  knowledge.  I  will  give  two 
illustrations  on  this  point. 

The  text  which  we  are  considering  is  quoted  in  the 
Westminster  Confession  in  connexion  with  what  it 
calls  the  ''high  mystery  of  predestination" — the  doc- 
trine that  "God  from  all  eternity  did,  by  the  most 
wise  and  holy  counsel  of  His  own  will,  freely  and  un- 
changeably ordain  whatsoever  comes  to  pass  " ;  or  in 
its  particular  application  to  responsible  creatures,  that 
"by  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  His 
glory,  some  men  and  angels  are  predestinated  unto 
everlasting  life,  and  others  foreordained  to  everlasting 
death  ".  The  time  has  been,  we  know,  when  these 
tremendous  assertions  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
over  many  minds  ;  there  was  something  in  them  which 
overawed  and  humbled  perhaps,  but  which  as  certainly 
shocked  and  paralyzed  the  spirits  of  men.  For  better 
or  worse  that  time  has  passed.  We  have  sailed 
into  latitudes  where  such  statements  have  lost  their 
authority  :  in  the  form  just  cited  no  one  is  perturbed  by 
them  any  more.  But  the  facts  and  the  motives  which 
originally  inspired  them  have  not  vanished  from  the 
world,  and  the  trouble  which  they  once  produced  still 
vexes  souls  which  do  not  see  that  under  another  guise 
it  is  still  the  same.  Here  are  two  men  living  side  by 
side,  sons  of  the  same  parents,  running  to  all  appear- 
ance the  same  course  :  one  is  arrested  by  the  Gospel, 
the   other  is  not.     The  one  who   is  arrested  has  no 

3 


34  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

doubt  how  it  happened.  God  arrested  him.  Christ 
stretched  out  His  strong  hand  and  apprehended  him. 
It  is  the  sovereign  will  of  God  the  Redeemer  which  is 
manifested  in  his  salvation.  "  Not  unto  us,  Lord,  not 
unto  us,"  he  says,  *'  but  unto  Thy  name  be  the  glory." 
No  question  of  duty  or  responsibility  seems  to  be 
raised  at  all:  there  is  no  apparent  actor  in  the  case 
but  God.  But  what  of  the  man  who  is  still  leading 
the  old  life,  and  who  has  had  no  such  experience?  Is 
he  at  liberty  to  say  :  Till  God  saves  me  as  He  has 
saved  my  brother,  I  have  no  responsibility  in  this 
region  ?  No.  He  knows  nothing  of  how  or  why  God 
acted  as  He  has  done  in  his  brother's  case,  and  there- 
fore the  motives  of  religion  cannot  lie  there  for  him. 
The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  it 
is  in  the  things  that  are  revealed,  in  the  realities  which 
are  patent  to  our  minds,  that  all  religious  motives  lie. 
Is  it  possible,  then,  for  such  a  man  to  trace  back  the 
difference  between  himself  and  his  brother  to  an 
original  difference  of  constitution,  to  a  distinction  in 
nature,  the  responsibility  for  which  belongs  in  such 
wise  to  God  that  no  responsibility  in  connexion  with 
it  can  ever  be  attached  to  him  ?  No  :  this  is  not 
possible  either.  No  doubt  the  immense  original  dif- 
ferences between  men,  which  determine  so  much  in 
their  life,  are  important ;  no  doubt  some  will  of  God  is 
revealed  in  them,  some  Divine  purpose ;  but  just  be- 
cause it  is  a  will  and  a  purpose  that  are  so  far  hidden 
from  us,  our  responsibility  in  religion  cannot  be 
affected  by  it.  Our  religious  responsibility  depends 
\  nn  the  Revealed  will  of  God  :  it  depends  simply  and 
solely  on  what  we  know.  We  know  that  eternal  life 
has  come  into  the  world  in  Christ.  We  know  that 
God  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked.     If 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION     35 

we  may  say  so  reverently,  it  is  a  high  mystery  to  Him, 
a  thing  He  cannot  understand,  that  men  should  refuse 
His  salvation  :  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye 
die  ?  "  We  know  that  the  scope  of  the  Gospel  is  not 
a  matter  for  speculation  but  for  action,  and  that  the 
answer  to  the  question,  Are  there  few  that  be  saved  ? 
is  :  Strive  to  enter  in  by  the  strait  gate.  We  know  that 
no  one  here  dare  stand  up  and  say:  God  has  never  . 
spoken  to  me,  never  laid  His  hand  on  me,  never  called  / 
me  to  Himself  by  the  voice  of  Jesus.  He  has.  And 
against  this  knowledge  and  experience,  no  ignorance 
however  profound,  no  mystery  however  impenetrable, 
weighs  for  a  single  instant.  "" 

The  other  illustration  is  in  substance  very  close  to 
this  one,  but  is  worth  stating  separately.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  the  mystery  arising  out  of  the  complex 
nature  of  man  which  seems  open  always  to  incon- 
sistent interpretations.  We  have  only  one  experience, 
yet  we  can  read  it  in  ways  which  seem  directly  to 
contradict  each  other.  We  can  read  it,  so  to  speak, 
from  the  outside,  through  the  body.  Then  every- 
thing in  it  appears  subject  to  a  law  of  necessity, 
and  responsibility  is  shut  out.  Every  change  in  the 
body,  including  the  brain,  is  dependent  on  antecedent 
changes,  and  these  again  on  others,  all  being  bound 
in  an  endless  chain  of  adamantine  links.  Yet  on  these 
changes,  which  are  entirely  beyond  our  control,  de- 
pends all  our  inner  life — our  thoughts,  our  emotions, 
our  affections,  our  pieties,  our  impieties,  our  prayers, 
our  blasphemies  :  they  are  what  they  are,  and  that 
they  should  be  anything  else  is  inconceivable.  But 
we  can  read  that  self-same  experience  again  from 
the  inner  side — not  through  the  body,  but  through 
the  soul — and    then    everything  is  changed.      There 


36  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

is  no  necessity  now,  no  compulsion  which  has 
simply  to  be  recognized,  or  rather  which  is  so  all- 
encompassing  that  it  is  not  felt ;  everything  is  free, 
spontaneous,  responsible,  charged  throughout  with 
the  character  and  value  of  personality.  How  are 
these  opposites  to  be  brought  together?  How  is  ex- 
perience, which  is  undoubtedly  one,  to  be  seen  in  its 
unity,  and  rescued  from  this  incoherence  which  is  so 
paralyzing  to  the  will  ?  Here  is  a  mystery  over  which 
the  mind  has  brooded  since  thinking  began.  It  is 
put  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  It  is  the  problem  of  the 
unity  yet  distinction  of  soul  and  body,  of  spirit  and 
nature,  of  freedom  and  necessity,  of  religion  and 
science,  of  God  and  the  universe  ;  all  these  are  differ- 
ent ways  of  naming  the  same  thing.  Perhaps,  after 
all,  it  is  too  much  to  consider  this  a  high  mystery 
with  power  in  it  to  suspend  life  and  arrest  responsi- 
bility. Perhaps  it  is  not  a  mystery,  but  a  conundrum. 
Perhaps  the  mind  will  some  day  expand  a  little  and 
outreach  it.  Perhaps  some  mental  readjustment,  or 
some  change  of  our  point  of  view,  may  give  us  a 
stereoscopic  look  at  life  in  which  the  two  aspects  shall 
coalesce  into  one  clearer  and  more  complete.  We 
cannot  tell.  But  one  thing  we  are  sure  of:  it  is  not 
by  the  baffling  problems  and  unsolved  mysteries  of 
life  that  our  conduct  is  to  be  determined :  it  is  to  be 
determined  by  what  we  know.  We  cannot  make  our 
inability  to  answer  the  questions  just  referred  to  a  plea 
for  disowning  the  responsibilities  of  life  altogether. 
We  cannot  make  them  a  plea  for  renouncing  liberty, 
and  consenting  to  exist  as  if  nature  and  its  necessities 
were  all.  We  cannot  do  this,  because  our  responsi- 
bilities are  fixed  by  what  we  know,  and  to  put  it 
simply,  we  know  better.     We  know  that  man  is  made 


KNOWLEDGE  THE  BASIS  OF  RELIGION     37 

not  to  be  lost  in  nature  but  to  rise  above  it — not  to  be 
a  part  of  the  physical  universe,  but  to  be  its  sovereign 
— not  to  live  the  life  of  rocks  and  stones  and  trees  and 
dumb  creatures,  but  even  while  rooted  in  nature  to 
live  a  life  eternal  and  Divine.  It  is  as  we  accept  this 
responsibility  in  the  sight  of  God  that  God  is  on  our 
side.  It  is  as  we  assert  our  liberty  at  all  costs,  and 
only  so,  that  we  enter  into  life. 

The  general  import  of  the  text  is  summed  up  if  we 
say  that,  like  so  much  else  in  Scripture,  it  is  a  lesson 
on  the  simplicity  of  real  religion.  It  has  a  place  for 
Agnosticism,  doubtless  ;  so  far  from  being  a  rival  to 
religion.  Agnosticism  is  an  element  in  it.  "  Canst  thou 
by  searching  find  out  God?  Canst  tJiou  find  out  the 
Almighty  unto  perfection  ?  "  Such  is  the  noble  scorn 
with  which  it  meets  the  man  whose  creed  is  only  too 
complete.  But  though  it  has  room  for  Agnosticism,  it 
rests  on  what  we  know.  Its  basis  is  not  the  secret 
things,  but  the  things  which  are  revealed.  It  is  as 
plain  as  the  will  of  God — as  the  Ten  Commandments, 
as  the  builders  on  the  rock  and  the  sand,  as  the 
example  of  Jesus,  as  the  appeal  of  His  love.  The 
difficulties  which  arise  out  of  our  ignorance,  no  matter 
how  far-reaching  they  may  be,  are  not  in  the  proper 
sense  religious  difficulties.  They  are  often  called  so, 
but  it  is  a  mistake.  They  may  be  theological,  or 
scientific,  or  philosophical  difficulties  ;  but  they  are 
not  religious,  for  religion  rests  simply  on  what  we 
know.  There  is  only  one  real  religious  difficulty,  the 
difficulty  of  being  religious ;  just  as  there  is  only  one 
real  difficulty  about  the  word  of  God,  the  difficulty  of 
keeping  it.  To  see  this  does  not  make  religion  in 
itself  easier,  but  it  keeps  us  from  fretting  our  strength 
away  on  obstacles  which  are  not  on  our  path  at  all. 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER. 

"  I  am  a  stranger  in  the  earth  :  hide  not  Thy  commandments  from  me." 
— Psalm  cxix.  19. 

The  text  expresses  with  great  simplicity  man's  posi- 
tion in  the  world,  and  the  prayer  which  rises  in  his 
heart  as  the  position  is  realized.  He  is  a  stranger 
here,  a  resident  alien  in  a  land  which  is  not  his  home ; 
and  when  he  feels  the  strangeness  of  the  place,  he  feels 
at  the  same  time  the  need  of  God's  guidance  if  he  is 
to  pass  through  it  with  safety  and  honour.  "  I  am  a 
sojourner  in  the  earth  :  hide  not  Thy  commandments 
from  me." 

This  is  not,  indeed,  our  first  thought  when  our 
minds  begin  to  open  upon  life,  nor  is  it  meant  to  be. 
The  earth  is  kind  to  us  at  first.  Love  makes  ready 
for  us  before  we  are  born ;  we  open  our  eyes  upon 
faces  that  look  on  us  with  passionate  fondness,  and 
draw  our  breath  in  an  atmosphere  of  love.  God 
makes  us  dwell  in  families,  and  as  long  as  the  family 
is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  our  world,  the  sense 
of  strangeness  or  homelessness  cannot  overcome  us. 
The  years  during  which  we  are  too  weak  to  bear  this 
sore  trial  are  mercifully  shielded  from  it,  and  if  the 
hearts  of  very  young  children  are  sometimes  pierced 
with  the  sense  of  loneliness  and  neglect,  as  though 
home  had  quite  ceased  to  be  homely,  this  is  due  to  the 

(3«) 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  39 

fault  of  others  and  not  to  the  purpose  of  God.  The 
same  holds  true,  more  or  less,  of  the  whole  period  of 
our  growth.  It  is  part  of  our  very  nature  to  grow  up 
into  membership  of  a  society,  into  citizenship  of  a 
country.  We  connect  our  individual  life  with  what 
stretches  behind  us  into  the  past,  and  with  what  lies 
around  us  in  the  present.  We  naturalize  ourselves, 
so  to  speak,  in  the  earth.  If  our  individual  life  is  but 
a  moment  in  time,  we  give  it  duration  and  dignity  by 
connecting  it  with  its  roots  in  the  past,  and  by  serving 
ourselves  heirs  to  the  great  inheritance  which  our  race 
has  accumulated ;  if  it  shrinks  into  a  point  in  space, 
we  think  of  the  innumerable  ties  which  bind  it  to 
others,  of  the  innumerable  lines  along  which  influences 
enter  it  from,  or  pass  from  it  to,  the  universal  life  of 
humanity ;  we  try  in  imagination  and  in  reality  not  to 
be  strangers  in  the  earth,  but  to  make  the  world  a 
spacious,  rich,  and  satisfying  home. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  this  is  God's  will.  It 
is  He  who  has  given  man  the  earth  to  dwell  in.  It  is 
He  who  has  made  nature  and  man's  mind  on  the  same 
model,  so  that  we  can  understand  our  dwelling  place. 
It  is  He  who  has  established  the  laws  of  nature,  apart 
from  which  a  reasonable  and  ordered  life  would  be 
impossible,  and  home  an  idea  which  could  never  rise 
upon  the  mind.  It  is  He  who  has  created  the  parental 
instincts  out  of  which  the  family  and  the  home  have 
grown  in  which  we  are  received  at  birth.  It  is  His 
government  which  supports  and  is  reflected  in  the 
great  communities  in  which  the  moral  life  of  man  finds 
all  but  its  highest  expression.  And  He  who  has  created 
and  who  sustains  this  manifold  order  as  plainly  designs 
that  we  should  live  in  it  and  enjoy  it.     He  designs  us, 


40  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

as  far  as  the  order  of  nature  and  the  harmony  of  society 
permit,  to  be  at  home  in  the  world.  The  vast  wealth 
of  nature,  and  the  fitness  of  the  social  organism  to 
nourish,  to  exhilarate,  and  to  gladden  all  the  spiritual 
faculties  of  man,  are  of  God.  He  who  cuts  himself  off 
from  these,  who  does  not  know  how  God  has  prepared 
in  nature  and  in  society  a  place  for  the  mind  and  heart 
of  man  to  dwell  in,  may  say  that  he  is  a  stranger  in 
the  earth,  but  it  is  a  vain  saying  on  such  lips.  He 
does  not  know  whether  he  is  a  stranger  or  not ;  he 
has  not  tried  whether  earth  may  not  be  a  home. 

But  there  are  those  who  have  tried,  and  strange  to 
say,  the  more  complete  the  experiment,  the  less  satisfy- 
ing it  proves.  The  more  life  is  found  to  contain,  the 
more  the  desires  or  rather  the  necessities  of  the  soul 
expand.  Somehow  or  other,  light  breaks  in  upon  a 
good  man  from  above.  Let  him  use  to  the  full  and 
enjoy  without  stint  the  wealth  of  nature  and  the  wealth 
of  society — let  him  live  in  the  light  of  science  and  in 
the  glow  of  virtue  and  of  love — let  him  naturalize 
himself  and  strike  root  on  earth  as  thoroughly  as  he 
will :  and  in  the  very  hour  of  his  tranquiUity,  disquiet- 
ing thoughts  will  come.  Deeper  than  everything  is 
the  feeling  of  dependence,  not  on  nature  or  society,  but 
on  God — the  sense  of  the  infinite,  of  the  transitoriness 
of  all  that  lies  around,  of  the  Divine  kinship  and  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  When  this  wakes  up  in  its 
strength,  man  cannot  but  feel,  This  is  not  my  rest. 
The  world  is  a  rich  and  nobly  furnished  abode  ;  human 
society,  as  it  is  organized  here,  is  a  defence,  an  inspira- 
tion, a  dehght,  for  which  no  words  could  be  too  strong ; 
but  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  nor  both  together, 
represent  that  for  which  man  was  made.      The  soul 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  41 

must  have  other  relations,  other  guidance,  other  joys  ; 
it  is  a  stranger  in  the  earth. 

The  word  ** stranger"  or  "sojourner"  is  properly 
speaking  a  political  one ;  it  signifies  a  resident  alien,  a 
person  living  in  a  country  to  which  he  does  not  belong, 
and  excluded  therefore  from  the  rights  of  citizenship 
in  it.  Such  exclusion  does  not  prejudice  the  fact  that 
the  resident  alien  may  in  his  native  country  be  a  person 
of  great  account ;  the  citizenship  of  those  among  whom 
he  lives  an  exile  may  be  one  which  he  would  scorn  to 
compare  with  his  own.  It  is,  in  point  of  fact,  in  this 
sense  that  a  man  of  God  like  the  Psalmist  finds  himself 
a  stranger  in  the  earth ;  and  that  the  New  Testament, 
which  speaks  of  our  citizenship  as  in  heaven,  describes 
Christians  as  strangers  and  sojourners.  The  Psalms 
describe  elsewhere  the  life  of  those  who  are  not 
strangers  here,  but  have  their  home  and  all  their  hopes 
on  earth,  and  are  unvisited  by  thoughts  of  anything 
beyond.  "Their  inward  thought  is  that  their  houses 
shall  continue  for  ever,  and  their  dwelling  places  to 
all  generations ;  they  call  their  lands  after  their  own 
names."  It  is  this  life,  of  the  earth  earthy,  which 
makes  the  Psalmist  feel  from  home.  He  cannot  natural- 
ize himself  in  it.  As  he  sees  its  prevalence  all  around 
him,  he  can  only  say  with  a  certain  shrinking :  "  I  am 
a  stranger  on  the  earth  ".  Those  who  sympathize  with 
his  feeling  of  loneliness  or  homelessness  will  ap- 
preciate his  prayer:  "Hide  not  Thy  commandments 
from  me  ". 

Let  us  consider  what  this  means.  It  implies  that 
there  is  a  Divine  law  for  this  peculiar  situation.  The 
man  of  God  is  not  to  suppress  that  sense  of  being  a 
stranger,  and  to  conform  to  the  world's  ways.     He  is 


42  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

not  to  try  to  smother  the  intimations  which  remind 
him  that  he  is  made  for  more  than  the  world  yields, 
and  to  do  at  Rome  as  the  Romans  do.  No  doubt  the 
best  men  are  the  most  tolerant,  and  can  most  easily 
give  the  world's  conventions  a  conventional  respect. 
Some  time  ago  I  saw  a  description  of  the  character  of 
a  saint  which  is  perhaps  worth  quoting  in  this  con- 
nexion. "The  saint,"  said  the  writer,  the  late  Mr.  Coven- 
try Patmore,  "  has  no  fads  ;  and  you  may  live  in  the 
same  house  with  him  and  never  find  out  that  he  is 
not  a  sinner  like  yourself,  unless  you  rely  on  negative 
proofs,  or  obtrude  lax  ideas  on  him,  and  so  provoke 
him  to  silence.  He  may  impress  you  indeed  by  his 
harmlessness  and  imperturbable  good  temper,  and 
probably  by  some  lack  of  appreciation  of  modern 
humour,  and  ignorance  of  some  things  which  men  are 
expected  to  know,  and  by  never  seeming  to  have  much 
use  for  his  time  when  it  can  be  of  any  service  to  you  ; 
but  on  the  whole  he  will  give  you  an  agreeable  im- 
pression of  general  inferiority  to  yourself"  Certainly 
it  was  no  New  Testament  saint  who  stood  or  sat  for 
this  portrait;  nothing  could  be  less  like  Paul  or  John. 
But  it  has  this  much  truth  in  it :  The  man  who  is  a 
stranger  in  the  earth  and  who  knows  it,  though  he 
does  not  distinguish  himself  by  loud  rebellion  against 
the  ways  of  the  land  he  lives  in,  lives  nevertheless  a 
life  of  his  own,  inspired  by  higher  laws,  and  knows 
without  violence  how  to  maintain  his  independence. 

The  law  of  this  higher  life,  according  to  the  Psalm- 
ist, is  to  be  found  in  the  commandments  of  God  :  who- 
ever knows  them  knows  what  will  bring  order,  peace, 
and  stability  into  his  existence,  and  turn  his  place  of 
exile  into  a  home  in  which  he  dwells  with  God.     I'he 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  43 

heart,  conscious  that  it  is  an  ahen  in  this  passing  world, 
cries  out  for  contact  with  the  eternal  to  which  it  is 
akin.  It  longs  to  know  God,  to  see  God,  to  be  right 
with  God,  to  live  in  union  and  communion  with  Him  ; 
it  longs  as  a  citizen  of  heaven  to  obey  the  heavenly 
laws,  even  while  a  resident  alien  on  the  earth. 
Browning  in  one  of  his  best-known  poems  has  illus- 
trated this  with  great  force.  He  shows  us  the  man 
whom  Jesus  had  raised  from  the  dead, 

in  knowledge 
Increased  beyond  the  earthly  faculty — 
Heaven  opened  to  a  soul  while  yet  on  earth, 
Earth  forced  on  a  soul's  use  while  seeing  heaven  : 

and  what  is  the  result? 

He  holds  on  firmly  to  some  thread  of  life 

(It  is  the  life  to  live  perforcedly) 

Which  runs  across  some  vast  distracting  orb 

Of  glory  on  either  side  that  meagre  thread, 

Which,  conscious  of,  he  must  not  enter  yet — 

The  spiritual  life  around  the  earthly  life  : 

The  law  of  that  is  known  to  him  as  this, 

His  heart  and  brain  move  there,  his  feet  stay  here. 

To  imagine  a  man  who  has  passed  within  the  veil, 
and  seen  the  things  that  are  eternal,  and  after  that 
returned  again  to  earth,  is  the  most  striking  way  of 
presenting  one  who  must  feel  himself  a  stranger  in  the 
earth,  and  bound  to  hve  by  another  law ;  but  it  is  not 
the  only  way.  Every  man  in  whom  the  sense  of  the 
infinite  has  awakened  knows  what  is  meant  by  **  the 
spiritual  life  around  the  earthly  hfe,"  and  longs  to  hold 
the  thread  of  that  higher  hfe  in  this  land  of  exile  ;  every 
such  man  longs  in  this  alien  world  to  live  under  the 
law,  the  inspiration,  the  memory,  and  the  hope  of  God. 


44  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

The  Psalmist's  prayer :  **  Hide  not  Thy  command- 
ments from  me,"  gives  a  pecuHar  turn  to  this  truth.  It 
shows  us  that  the  contact  with  the  element  for  which 
our  hearts  cry  out,  the  hold  upon  the  thread  of  life  which 
is  a  matter  of  death  or  life  to  us,  is  granted  in  the  shape  of 
obedience  to  the  revealed  will  of  God.  We  know  God 
when  we  know  what  God  would  have  us  do,  and  the 
Psalmist  had  been  taught  of  God  when  he  prayed,  **  Hide 
not  Thy  commandments  from  me  ".  The  knowledge  of 
God  that  we  need  is  a  knowledge  for  action  and  obedi- 
ence. Earth  is  a  place  of  exile  when  we  do  no  more 
than  think  of  God,  but  the  Divine  life  is  to  be  intro- 
duced into  the  earth  by  the  keeping  of  God's  command- 
ments, and  even  in  exile  we  are  to  be  loyal  to  our 
heavenly  citizenship.  All  nature,  including  human 
nature,  is  to  be  made  the  organ  and  the  revelation  of 
God.  The  flesh  with  its  instincts  is  to  be  spiritualized. 
The  kingdoms  of  the  world  are  to  become  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ.  The  commandments 
of  God  are  to  be  obeyed  in  them.  It  is  as  we  work  at 
this  task — as  we  do  the  commandments  of  God — that 
the  sense  of  insecurity  and  unreality  passes  away.  If 
earth  does  not  become  our  home,  at  all  events  God  is 
our  home  even  while  we  are  on  earth.  As  St.  John 
says :  "The  world  passes  away,  and  the  longing  it  in- 
spires ;  but  he  who  does  the  will  of  God  abides  for 
ever  ". 

A  far  truer  and  more  striking  example  than  Lazarus, 
of  the  stranger  on  earth  who  longs  for  God's  command- 
ments, is  Jesus  Himself  He  is  the  great  inhabitant  of 
another  world  who  passed  a  life  of  exile  here,  and 
though  He  incorporated  Himself  in  the  human  race  and 
naturalized  Himself  on  earth,  it  must  always  have  re- 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  45 

mained  a  strange  place  to  Him.  He  says  expressly  that 
it  was  so.  "Ye  are  from  beneath,  I  am  from  above"; 
it  is  as  much  as  if  He  had  said  :  We  belong  to  different 
worlds.  If  this  is  your  home,  it  cannot  be  Mine ; 
you  may  do  your  own  will,  but  I  am  bound  to  do  the 
commandments  of  God.  A  prophecy  in  Isaiah  re- 
presents God  as  opening  the  ear  of  His  Servant  morning 
by  morning,  giving  Him  as  every  new  day  came  the 
heavenly  revelation  He  needed.  Other  words  in  the 
prophecy  are  directly  applied  to  Jesus,  and  we  know 
that  this  is  applicable  too.  How  often  He  withdrew 
into  solitude,  as  one  who  felt  that  the  influence  of  earth 
tended  only  to  make  life  aimless,  and  spent  hours  with 
the  Father,  nourishing  His  exiled  life  with  the  life  eter- 
nal. We  know  that  the  Psalms  were  familiar  to  Him 
and  were  used  in  His  prayers  even  on  the  cross,  and  it 
does  not  seem  to  me  fanciful  to  think  of  Him  using  this 
prayer :  "  I  am  a  stranger  in  the  earth,  hide  not  Thy 
commandments  from  me  ".  He  tells  us  the  secret  of  His 
life  :  does  it  not  imply  that  He  presented  this  prayer 
and  had  it  answered  daily?  '*  I  do  nothing  of  Myself, 
but  as  My  Father  hath  taught  Me  I  speak  these  things." 
**The  Father  loveth  the  Son,  and  showeth  Him  all 
things  that  Himself  doeth."  **  If  ye  keep  My  command- 
ments ye  shall  abide  in  My  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept 
My  Father's  commandments  and  abide  in  His  love." 
The  Divine  law  which  was  essential  to  His  life  in  union 
with  the  Father  was  perpetually  revealed  to  Him  :  and 
even  in  this  place  of  exile,  as  He  did  always  the  things 
which  pleased  Him,  he  could  say  :  "  I  am  not  alone,  for 
the  Father  is  with  Me  ". 

Religion,  when  it  is  reduced  to  its  simplest  elements, 
is  the  same  in  all  ages.     Christ  and  his  Apostles  used 


46  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  Psalms  in  their  devotions,  we  ourselves  use  them, 
and  they  will  be  used  till  the  end  of  time.  As  years 
pass,  and  the  certainty  that  this  is  not  our  home  be- 
comes more  importunate,  do  we  feel  more  than  we 
once  did  the  need  of  the  presence  and  direction  of 
God  ?  It  is  not  in  us  who  walk  to  direct  our  own  steps 
in  this  foreign  land.  Many  of  you  must  be  familiar 
with  them,  but  I  will  venture  to  quote  again  the  well- 
known  words  of  the  greatest  of  Greek  philosophers 
under  which  the  very  same  need  of  God  beats  as  we 
find  here  in  the  Psalmist,  and  in  our  own  hearts.  He 
is  speaking  particularly  of  the  end  of  life  and  of  what 
comes  after,  but  his  words  have  a  wider  application. 
"  A  man,"  he  says,  "  should  persevere  until  he  has 
achieved  one  of  two  things.  Either  he  should  dis- 
cover or  be  taught  the  truth  ;  or,  if  that  is  impossible, 
I  would  have  him  take  the  best  and  most  irrefragable 
of  human  theories,  and  let  this  be  the  raft  upon  which 
he  sails  through  life — not  without  risk,  as  I  admit,  if 
he  cannot  find  some  word  of  God  which  will  more 
surely  and  safely  carry  him."  This  craving  for  some 
word  of  God  :  what  is  it  but  the  Psalmist's  prayer, 
'*  Hide  not  Thy  commandments  from  me  "  ?  Do  we  feel, 
as  life  becomes  more  obviously  a  pilgrimage,  and  earth 
an  alien  land,  that  our  deepest  need  is  to  be  sure  of 
God,  and  that  the  way  in  which  such  security  is 
granted  is  the  way  of  obedience  to  a  Divine  law  ? 

There  are  one  or  two  practical  considerations  with 
which  I  shall  conclude  :  if  we  take  them  seriously, 
they  will  help  us  to  attain  to  that  certainty  of  God 
which  we  need. 

The  first  is  this  :  our  situation,  as  strangers  on  the 
earth,  requires  us  to  seek  communication  with  God. 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  47 

It  demands  and  necessitates  prayer.  When  it  is 
realized  and  weighs  upon  us,  it  inspires  prayer.  The 
presupposition  of  all  prayer  is  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  will  of  God  applicable  to  my  situation, 
a  Divine  commandment  bearing  on  the  very  circum- 
stances in  which  I  have  to  act,  and  by  obeying  which 
my  exiled  uncertain  life  is  united  to  the  eternal  life  of 
God.  Prayer  is  not  always  the  presenting  of  defined 
requests  to  God  :  we  may  not  know  what  we  need  or 
even  what  we  want — except  that  it  is  God.  Prayer 
may  be  the  effort  of  the  soul,  oppressed  by  the  sense 
of  its  isolation,  its  impotence,  or  its  exile  in  the  world, 
to  connect  itself  again  effectively  with  Him.  It  is 
not  an  attempt  to  lay  down  the  law  to  God  ;  it  is  the 
longing  of  the  soul  to  be  sure  of  the  law  which  He  has 
laid  down  for  it.  And  this  particular  kind  of  prayer, 
in  which  the  soul,  conscious  of  its  darkness,  its  weak- 
ness, its  incapacity  to  face  life  alone,  cries  to  God  in 
the  pathetic  appeahng  tone  of  this  text,  has  a  peculiar 
promise  connected  with  it  in  Scripture.  "  Call  unto 
Me  and  I  will  answer  thee,  and  shew  thee  great  and 
hidden  things  that  thou  knowest  not."  This  is  what 
we  need — to  have  the  Divine  law,  which  eludes  us, 
made  plain  for  our  actual  situation.  It  may  be  made 
plain  to  us,  as  to  Jeremiah,  to  whom  this  promise 
was  given,  in  marvels  of  providential  wisdom  and  good- 
ness, in  great  and  hidden  things  that  we  know  not :  but 
it  is  in  any  case  made  plain  in  answer  to  prayer. 

A  second  consideration  is  this  :  our  situation,  as 
strangers  on  the  earth,  requires  us  to  think  about  the 
law  of  God.  We  pray :  "  Hide  not  Thy  command- 
ments " ;  but  in  great  part  they  are  not  hidden.  God 
has  spoken,  and  shown  us  the  path  of  life.     The  prayer 


48  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  the  text  is  in  effect  very  much  that  of  the  preceding 
verse  in  the  Psalm  :  "  Open  Thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may 
behold  wondrous  things  out  of  Thy  law  ".  I  am  not 
speaking  at  random  when  I  say  that  even  in  the 
Christian  Church  and  in  Christian  homes  there  is  an 
extraordinary  lack  of  appreciation  for  the  Bible  as  a 
means  of  initiation  into  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  of  true 
union  and  communion  with  Him.  We  do  not  need  to 
raise  any  critical  questions  to  be  assured  that  if  a 
revelation  of  God's  will  is  given  anywhere  it  is  given 
here.  If  a  man  will  only  read  his  Bible  for  the  sake 
of  God's  commandments,  he  will  never  encounter  any 
difficulty  in  it  but  the  difficulty  of  keeping  them.  To 
bring  the  mind,  the  conscience,  the  heart,  into  harmony 
with  the  mind  of  God,  so  that  even  in  a  world  which 
largely  ignores  God  a  man  may  be  able  to  live  in 
practical  union  with  Him,  the  habitual  use  of  the  Bible 
is  indispensable.  Let  us  read  it  more  steadily  than 
we  have  done,  with  more  reflection,  with  more  pur- 
pose. Let  us  think  out,  as  best  we  can,  its  bearing  on 
our  life  and  calling.  Let  us  come  regularly  to  the 
church,  where  the  word  of  God  is  ministered,  and  at 
least  an  effort  is  made  to  read  its  lessons  for  our  con- 
duct. Let  us  commend  the  word  of  God  and  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  at  least  by  our  example.  The 
more  we  are  in  earnest  to  lead  a  life  in  which  we  shall 
have  the  assurance  of  God's  presence,  and  in  which 
the  exile  of  earth  shall  not  deprive  us  of  our  home  in 
Him,  the  more  we  shall  prize  this  revelation  of  His 
will,  and  the  less  shall  we  allow  trivial  causes  to  keep 
us  away  when  the  ministry  of  the  word  is  within  our 
reach. 

Finally,  our  situation  as  strangers  in  the  earth  calls 


THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER  49 

us  to  the  imitation  of  Jesus.  As  we  are,  so  was  He  in 
the  world  ;  and  as  He  was,  so  ought  we  to  be  in  it.  In 
His  case,  as  I  have  said,  the  Psalmist's  prayer  was 
answered.  He  was  a  stranger  in  the  earth  from 
whom  God  did  not  hide  His  commandments.  He  is 
the  pattern,  the  captain,  the  head  of  all  who  are  exiles 
here,  and  whose  home  is  in  God.  When  we  look  to 
Him,  we  see  what  this  prayer  really  means ;  and  the 
answer  is  given  to  it  when  His  voice  comes  to  us : 
"  Follow  Me."  Follow  Me— that  is  the  sum  of  all  God's 
commandments.  What  it  means  is  not  revealed  in  an 
instant,  it  is  only  revealed  as  we  follow.  But  as  we 
do  so,  beginning  where  we  stand  with  the  minutest 
act  of  obedience,  the  great  revelation  incarnate  in 
Jesus  begins  to  open  up  to  us ;  we  discover  that  in 
Him  there  shines  not  a  casual  ray  of  Divine  light,  but 
the  very  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory ;  that  God 
Himself  has  come  to  dwell  with  man,  and  that  earth  is 
a  place  of  exile  no  more.  Let  us  set  our  hearts  to 
follow  Jesus,  steadfastly,  soberly,  joyfully.  It  is  our 
supreme  duty,  because  it  answers  to  God's  supreme 
grace.  All  our  prayers  are  transcended  by  the  experi- 
ences it  opens  to  us.  What  is  the  exile  of  earth  any 
more  to  those  who  can  say :  ''  The  Word  w^as  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  full  of  grace  and  truth ; 
and  of  His  fulness  we  all  received  "  ? 


THE  HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA^ 

*'  Blessed  are  your  eyes,  for  they  see  ;  and  your  ears,  for  they  hear. 
For  verily  I  say  unto  you.  That  many  prophets  and  righteous  men 
have  desired  to  see  those  things  which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen 
them  ;  and  to  hear  those  things  which  ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard 
them."— Matt.  xiii.  i6f. 

Two  things  are  conspicuous  in  this  passage.  First, 
there  is  the  congratulation  addressed  by  Jesus  to  His 
disciples  :  "  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which  see  the  things 
which  ye  see  " ;  and  next,  there  is  the  compassion  with 
which  Jesus  looks  back  on  those  who  had  longed  for 
such  happiness  and  been  denied  it :  **  Many  prophets 
and  kings  and  righteous  men  have  desired  to  see  the 
things  which  ye  see  and  have  not  seen  them  ".  It  is 
of  this  congratulation  and  this  compassion  I  wish  to 
speak. 

I.  Most  of  us  have  heard  panegyrics  pronounced 
upon  our  own  age,  as  compared  with  earlier  ages  in  the 
world's  history,  though  perhaps  they  are  neither  so 
common  nor  so  confident  as  they  were  a  generation 
ago.  Happy,  we  have  heard  it  said,  are  those  who 
live  in  an  age  in  which  science  has  so  far  mastered 
nature  and  put  its  forces  at  man's  disposal ;  happy  are 
those  who  are  born  to  political  freedom,  to  citizenship 
in  a  great  nation,  with  inspiring  memories,  responsi- 
bilities, and  hopes;  happy  are  those   who    have   not 

^  Preached  at  the  ordination  of  a  missionary. 

(50) 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA      51 

the  rudest  of  the  world's  work  to  do,  but  inherit  con- 
ditions in  which  leisure  is  possible,  and  the  enjoyment 
of  literature,  art,  and  refined  social  intercourse  ;  happy, 
in  short,  are  we,  living  in  Scotland  in  the  twentieth 
century,  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages.  There  is  no  century 
behind  to  which  we  should  willingly  return. 

It  is  quite  right  to  be  appreciative  of  such  blessings, 
but  it  is  not  on  things  like  these  that  Jesus  congratu- 
lates His  disciples.  They  had  none  of  our  modern 
improvements ;  no  steam  engine,  or  telegraph  or 
telephone ;  they  had  no  self-government,  no  votes,  no 
economic  security ;  they  had  not  even  words  in  their 
language  for  science  or  art ;  they  had  never  seen  any 
of  the  things  which  are  spread  before  our  eyes  in  the 
great  exhibitions  in  which  our  age  parades  the  con- 
sciousness of  its  immense  superiority  to  all  that  have 
gone  before.  Yet  Jesus  says  to  them  :  **  Blessed  are  the 
eyes  that  see  the  things  which  ye  see  ".  What  was  in 
His  mind  when  He  broke  into  this  benediction  ?  What 
was  it  the  disciples  saw  on  which  they  were  so  much 
to  be  congratulated  ? 

The  answer  is  plain  from  the  very  form  of  the 
sentence.  Jesus  does  not  say,  "  Blessed  are  otir  eyes 
for  they  see,"  as  if  the  ground  of  congratulation  were 
something  in  the  circumstances  of  the  time  common 
to  Him  and  His  disciples.  On  the  contrary.  He  says  : 
"  Blessed  dir^your  eyes  for  they  see,  a.nd  your  ears,  for 
they  hear  "  ;  and  it  is  abundantly  clear  from  the  context 
both  in  Matthew  and  Luke  that  the  real  ground  of  His 
felicitation  was  that  the  disciples  lived  in  the  age  in 
which  He  had  made  His  appearance  in  the  world. 
What  their  eyes  saw,  they  saw  in  Him;  what  their 
ears    heard,  they  heard    from   His    lips ;  and    it   was 


52  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

something  so  wonderful  and  priceless  that  that  genera- 
tion might  well  have  been  the  envy  of  all  that  went 
before.  One  of  the  things  that  come  upon  us  with  a 
perpetually  new  astonishment  in  the  Gospels  is  the 
way  in  which  Jesus  thinks  and  speaks  of  Himself.  He 
was  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  the  one  perfect  pattern 
of  humility,  utterly  remote  from  boasting ;  but  again 
and  again  He  reveals,  we  might  almost  say  uncon- 
sciously or  unintentionally,  a  sense  of  what  He  is 
which  fills  us  with  amazement.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  striking  passages  in  which  this  is  done.  Jesus 
does  not  assert  anything  here,  nor  make  any  particular 
claim  ;  He  only  makes  us  feel  that  in  His  own  mind  He 
was  one  whose  coming  would  have  satisfied  all  the 
unfulfilled  yearnings  of  the  best  of  men  in  the  past,  one 
whose  presence  in  the  world  entitled  His  own  genera- 
tion to  congratulate  itself  above  all  its  predecessors. 
It  is  far  more  wonderful  than  any  title,  and  far  more 
impressive,  to  feel — as  these  words  make  us  feel — that 
in  the  mind  of  Jesus  the  world's  felicity  was  at  heart 
dependent  on  Him. 

Is  it  possible  for  us  to  put  the  meaning  of  this  more 
precisely  ?  If  what  the  eyes  of  the  disciples  saw  and 
their  ears  heard  were  reduced  to  a  unity,  what  would 
it  be  ?  Their  eyes  and  ears  were  the  recipients  of  a 
revelation  :  can  we  put  the  revelation  into  a  word  ? 
If  we  look  at  the  connexion  in  which  this  word  of 
Jesus  is  given  in  Luke,  I  think  we  are  justified  in  so 
doing.  As  the  disciples  looked  on  Jesus,  and  saw  all 
that  He  did — as  they  listened  to  Him,  and  heard  the 
words  of  grace  and  truth,  of  mercy  and  judgment,  that 
proceeded  out  of  His  mouth — the  conviction  gradually 
took  form  within  them  that  this  was  the  Son  of  the 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   ERA      53 

Father.  They  felt  that  nothing  ever  came  between 
Him  and  God,  and  that  nothing  need  ever  come 
between  Him  and  themselves.  He  was  as  Divine  as 
the  Father,  and  as  human  as  they.  He  was  the  Son 
who  was  all  the  time  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and 
who  all  the  time  also  trod  the  earth  which  they  trod, 
breathed  the  air  which  they  breathed,  shared  the 
poverty  which  was  their  lot,  went  about  doing  good, 
and  healing  all  that  were  oppressed  by  the  devil — He 
was  the  Son  in  whom  the  Father  was  revealed  in  a 
redeeming  love  and  power  to  which  there  was  no 
limit.  This  was  what  they  came  to  feel  and  believe 
about  Jesus,  and  the  congratulation  or  beatitude  of 
this  passage  shows  us  that  this  is  how  Jesus  felt  about 
Himself.  He  did  not  say  what  I  have  said  in  so  many 
words  :  it  would  not  have  been  of  any  use.  We  cannot 
learn  the  truth  about  Him  by  being  told  it  in  set  terms  : 
it  has  to  be  revealed  to  us  as  we  look  on  Him  and 
listen  to  Him ;  it  has  to  be  discovered  by  us  as  the 
revelation  takes  possession  of  our  souls.  But  when  it 
is  discovered — when  we  see  and  hear  in  Jesus  what  the 
Apostles  saw  and  heard — when  the  whole  manifesta- 
tion of  this  wonderful  Person  is  unified  and  focused 
in  the  Son  of  the  Father,  the  Son  in  whom  the  Father 
Himself  is  revealed  to  our  faith — then  the  truth  of 
the  beatitude  appears.  Happy,  O  thrice  and  four  times 
happy,  are  those  whose  eyes  see  and  whose  ears  hear 
the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  !  This  is  what  the  best 
of  earlier  days  have  longed  for.  This  is  the  one 
ground  of  self-congratulation  that  hes  too  deep  for 
any  trouble  to  touch.  And  I  say  again  how  wonder- 
ful it  is,  what  a  solemn  awe  falls  upon  our  hearts 
as   we    think   of  it,    that    this  is   not  only    how   the 


54  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Apostles  thought  of  Jesus,  but  is  how  Jesus  thought 
of  Himself. 

Many  are  asking  at  the  present  moment  whether 
the  revelation  which  the  Apostles  enjoyed,  and  on 
which  Jesus  congratulated  them,  is  still  accessible  to 
men.  Can  our  eyes  see  or  our  ears  hear  what  they 
saw  and  heard  ?  Or  are  we  not  rather  to  be  condoled 
with  than  congratulated  because  our  knowledge  of 
Jesus  is  necessarily  so  remote,  slight,  and  uncertain? 
Can  we  truly  say  that  we  know  much  or  anything  at 
all  about  Him  ?  I  am  reluctant  to  refer  in  the  church 
to  questions  that  have  so  much  unreality  and  con- 
fusion in  them,  but  perhaps  something  should  be 
said.  It  is  quite  true  that  there  are  many  things 
about  Jesus  which  we  do  not  know  and  never  can 
know.  We  do  not  know  exactly  when  He  was  born  or 
died  ;  we  do  not  know  anything  of  at  least  thirty  years 
of  His  life  ;  we  do  not  know  anything  of  His  private 
relations  to  other  people ;  we  have  no  materials  for 
writing  a  biography  of  Him.  But  we  have  the  Gospels, 
and  what  really  concerns  us  is  not  whether  we  can 
know  about  Jesus,  but  whether  we  can  know  Him  ; 
and  that  is  a  question  which  every  one  can  and  must 
answer  for  himself.  The  greatest  scholar  in  the  world 
is  not  in  a  better  position  to  answer  it  than  the 
simplest  and  most  untutored  mind.  For  my  own 
part,  I  say  with  confidence  that  it  is  not  only  possible 
to  know  Jesus  through  the  Gospels,  but  that  it  is 
impossible  for  a  sincere  human  being  not  to  know 
Him.  We  not  only  know  Him,  we  know  Him  better 
than  anybody  that  ever  lived,  better  even  than  we 
know  our  fluctuating,  inconstant,  half-moulded  selves. 
The  one  thing  that  strikes  a  live  mind  in  reading  the 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA      55 

Gospels,   is  the  simplicity  of  Jesus.     There  is  never 
any  rift  or  schism  in  His  being,  any  want  of  equiva- 
lence between  what  He  says  and  what  He  is.     The 
character  and  the  words  are  one  harmonious  and  in- 
dissoluble  whole.     Jesus    does  not  stand    apart  and 
speak  about  the  truth  ;   He  speaks  the  truth  simply, 
and  it  is  the  revelation  of  Himself.     No  other  person 
has  ever  been  able  to  make  this  kind  of  impression  by 
His  words.    The  Apostles  do  not  make  it.    They  bear 
witness  to  a  truth  which  is  independent  of  them  ;  they 
know  in  part ;  they  wrestle,  as  they  speak,  with  some- 
thing which  is  beyond  them  and  greater  than  they. 
But  with  Jesus  it  is  not  so.     His  words  do  not  reveal 
something   from  which  He  stands  at    a  distance,  as 
those  may  do  who  hear  Him ;  it  is  He  Himself  who 
is  expressed  in  them.     The  whole  of  Jesus  is  in  every 
word  He  speaks.    Think  of  the  parable  of  the  prodigal 
son,   to  take  an  utterance  with  which  every  one  is 
familiar.       Is  there  any  sense  in  saying   that   we  do 
not  know  the  person  to  whom  this  wonderful  story 
served    as  self-expression  and  as  self-defence  ?     We 
do    know    Him.      We    know    Him  as   the    true    Son 
of  the  Father — of  such  a  father  as  he  who  when  he 
saw  the  lost  son  afar  off,  ran  and  fell  on  his  neck,  and 
kissed  him  ;  we  know  Him  through  and  through,  and 
there  is  no  limit  to  which  we  cannot  trust  Him.     We 
may  have  a  thousand  difficulties  about  the  Gospels,  a 
thousand  unanswered  questions  about  what  is  or  is 
not  precisely  historical  in  them^ ;  but  if  we  are  simple 
and  sincere  in  our  approach  to  them,  I  do  not  see  how 
we  can    fail    to    know   Jesus.     And    is   not   this  our 
happiness  ?     Is    it   not  on   this  we  are   really  to    be 
congratulated,  that  through  the  Apostles'  testimony  to 


56  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Jesus,  and  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  to  that,  our 
eyes  can  see  and  our  ears  hear  the  revelation  on  which 
Jesus  felicitated  them  ?  How  dark  our  world  would 
be  and  dismal  if  the  image  of  Jesus  faded  from  our 
minds,  if  we  could  not  see  Him  in  whom  we  see  the 
Father,  if  we  had  no  story  of  the  prodigal  son,  no 
good  Samaritan,  no  great  Physician,  no  life  given  as  a 
ransom,  no  strong  Son  of  God  seeking  and  saving  the 
lost,  receiving  sinners,  a  Captain  of  salvation  to  lead 
all  who  fight  the  good  fight,  one  who  in  every  word 
and  deed  reveals  the  Father  in  whom  He  lived  and 
moved  and  had  His  being!  But  how  bright  our  life 
is,  how  radiant,  how  full  of  reasons  for  congratulation, 
if  Jesus  has  entered  into  it!  The  world  into  which 
His  presence  has  come  is  another  world.  The  people 
that  sit  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light;  to  them 
that  sit  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death  light  is 
sprung  up. 

2.  But  turn  now  to  the  second  aspect  of  this  text — 
the  revelation  in  it  of  the  compassion  of  Jesus.  It  has 
always  been  one  of  the  perplexities  about  the  Gospel — 
one  of  the  arguments  alleged  against  it — that  it  was  so 
late  of  appearing.  If  it  is  really  the  way  of  God's 
salvation,  why  was  it  not  revealed  from  the  beginning  ? 
Why  were  men  allowed  to  sit  for  centuries  and  millen- 
niums in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  ?  Why, 
indeed,  are  they  allowed  to  sit  in  such  darkness  still  ? 
How  few  of  all  the  children  of  men  who  live  to-day,  or 
who  have  ever  lived,  can  have  this  beatitude  of  Jesus 
applied  to  them  ?  These  questions  have  received  very 
different  answers. 

There  have  been  Calvinistic  theologians  who  an- 
swered them  coldly.     They  saw  in  the  actual  course 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA      57 

of  human  history  the  whole  expression  of  the  will  of 
God,  and  raised  no  question  further.  If  innumerable 
multitudes  of  men  have  never  known  Jesus  and  the 
Gospel,  it  is  by  the  will  of  God  that  this  is  so ;  they 
are  not  among  His  elect — that  is  the  obvious  fact — but 
it  is  idle  to  seek  for  any  explanation  of  it.  This  way 
of  turning  time  into  eternity,  and  regarding  what  we 
see  at  any  given  moment  as  the  fixed  and  eternal  will 
of  God,  is  onl}^  apparently  philosophical,  and  is  really 
possible  only  when  we  refuse  to  think  and  feel  in 
sympathy  with  Jesus. 

St.  Paul,  who  thought  about  all  human  histor}^, 
thought  about  this  question  also,  but  also  rather  form- 
ally. The  times  before  the  Gospel  are  to  him  **  times 
of  ignorance  "  ;  God  "  winked  at  "  them  ;  rather,  over- 
looked them,  did  not  press  during  them  the  responsi- 
bilities of  men,  as  He  does  now  when  the  Gospel  and  its 
call  have  come.  Though  He  did  not  leave  Himself 
without  a  witness.  He  allowed  all  the  nations  in  the  past 
generations  to  walk  in  their  own  ways ;  He  was  kind, 
forbearing,  had  the  Gospel  in  view;  but  Paul  himself 
does  not  enter  into  the  situation  with  much  sympathy. 

Still  less  do  we  get  anything  out  of  the  avowedly 
philosophical  people  who  tell  us  that  you  cannot  have 
a  world  at  all  unless  you  have  differences  in  it— that 
if  it  is  to  have  a  history  at  all  it  must  want  in  one  age 
what  it  has  in  another,  and  that  if  human  beings  are 
to  be  knit  into  one  society  it  must  be  by  the  mutual 
supplying  of  each  other's  needs,  which  means  (of 
course)  that  some  must  always  want  what  others  have. 
This  may  be  true,  but  it  is  one  of  the  formal  truths 
which  do  not  reach  the  vital  facts  in  which  men  are 
interested. 


58  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

How  different  from  all  these  is  the  tone  in  which 
Jesus  speaks  of  the  past.  **  I  say  unto  you  that  many 
prophets  and  kings  and  righteous  men  have  desired 
to  see  the  things  which  ye  see  and  have  not  seen 
them,  and  to  hear  the  things  which  ye  hear  and  have 
not  heard  them."  For  Him  the  dark  immeasurable  past 
is  not  filled  with  races  and  generations,  but  with  men 
and  their  spiritual  experiences.  They  are  individual- 
ized in  His  mind,  and  His  heart  is  touched  into  sym- 
pathy with  their  spiritual  yearnings.  He  embraces  in 
His  compassion  not  only  the  multitudes  around  Him, 
who  were  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  but  those 
who  in  distant  ages  had  seen  the  promise  of  God,  and 
embraced  it,  and  confessed  that  they  were  strangers 
and  pilgrims  on  the  earth.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
consoling  and  inspiring  words  in  the  Gospel — this  word 
which  reveals  the  sympathy  of  Jesus  with  souls  yearn- 
ing for  the  revelation  of  the  Father.  Who  implanted 
that  yearning  in  them  ?  Surely  it  was  God  Himself, 
from  whom  they  came.  It  is  His  creative  mark  upon 
them,  and  He  is  a  faithful  Creator,  who  will  not  disap- 
point the  longings  He  has  kindled.  We  do  not  know 
all  the  wonders  of  His  working,  but  if  we  trust  the 
revelation  of  His  love  in  this  sympathetic  word  of 
Jesus  we  can  only  believe  that  they  and  we  who  live 
in  the  light  of  the  Gospel  shall  be  made  perfect  to- 
gether. 

It  is  passages  like  this  which  show  the  universality 
of  the  Gospel,  and  furnish  the  real  justification  for 
Christian  missions.  Jesus  Himself  was  only  sent  to 
the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  and  He  never 
offered  Himself  to  the  wider  world  beyond.  But 
though  He  was  only  sent  to  Israel,  He  was  sent  for  the 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA      59 

world.  And  the  proof  of  it  lies  in  a  saying  like  this 
which  shows  His  yearning  sympathy  with  those  who 
under  unfavourable  conditions  are  nevertheless  long- 
ing for  the  Father.  Here  He  is  only  comparing 
present  time  with  the  past — the  age  in  which  He  re- 
vealed the  Father  to  men  with  the  darker  and  less 
happy  ages  that  lay  behind ;  but  if  He  were  standing 
in  the  midst  of  us  to-day — as  we  who  know  Him  believe 
He  is — would  He  not  look  out  with  the  same  yearning 
sympathy  on  the  dim  multitudes  which  lie  beyond  the 
borders  of  Christendom  ?  They  are  not  dim  multi- 
tudes to  Him.  They  are  not  inferior  or  alien  races. 
They  are  human  souls — some  of  them  great  souls, 
prophets  and  righteous  men — who  are  seeking  God  if 
haply  they  may  feel  after  Him  and  find  Him,  and  whose 
restless  hearts  will  not  be  satisfied  till  they  see  Jesus, 
and  believe  in  God  through  Him.  They  are  His, 
though  they  do  not  yet  know  it,  and  all  that  longing 
of  their  hearts  is  the  Father  drawing  them  to  the  Son. 
It  is  because  there  are  such  souls  in  the  world  that  the 
work  of  missions  is  a  Divine  and  hopeful  work.  God 
is  preparing  the  Vv^ay  of  His  messengers  everywhere. 
The  Good  Shepherd  has  sheep  that  are  to  be  gathered 
into  His  fold  from  the  north  and  the  south,  from  the 
east  and  the  west.  He  has  the  most  vivid  sympathy 
with  them  in  all  the  outgoing  of  their  souls  to  God. 
They  can  be  so  much  to  Him,  and  He  can  be  so  much 
to  them.  What  a  joyful  hour  it  is  when  the  supreme 
revelation  breaks  upon  them  through  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  and  He  can  say  again,  **  Happy  are  your 
eyes  for  they  see,  and  your  ears  for  they  hear  ". 

We  have  all  heard  a  good  deal  lately  of  the  World 
Missionary   Conference   at    Edinburgh.     By   far    the 


6o  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

strongest  impression  it  made  on  my  mind  was  that 
there  is  no  real  difference  between  the  work  of  missions 
and  the  work  of  the  Church  at  home,  and  that  what 
we  need  is  not  a  greater  interest  in  missions  but  a 
greater  interest  in  the  Gospel — that  is,  in  the  truth 
that  Christ  has  come  into  the  world,  the  revelation  of 
the  Father,  and  that  no  deep  or  satisfying  happiness  can 
enter  human  hearts  but  that  which  enters  with  Him. 
Of  course  there  are  differences  of  men,  racial,  histori- 
cal, cultural,  but  in  the  long  run  they  do  not  count. 
It  is  not  to  the  Briton  or  the  German  the  Gospel  is 
preached  in  Europe,  or  to  the  Chinaman  or  the  Hindu 
in  Asia;  it  is  to  the  soul  yearning  for  God,  or  perhaps 
hardened  against  God  ;  it  is  with  the  same  inspiration, 
the  same  hidden  allies,  the  same  antagonists,  the 
same  soul  travail,  the  same  hope,  everywhere.  And 
with  this  word  "  hope  "  I  will  conclude,  returning  from 
the  compassionate  to  the  congratulatory  side  of  our 
Saviour's  word.  It  is  only  a  joyful  religion  which  has 
a  right  to  be  missionary  :  only  one  which  is  conscious 
of  having  found  the  supreme  good  will  be  eager  to  im- 
part it.  But  surely  if  we  are  conscious  of  having  found 
the  supreme  good,  or  rather  of  being  found  by  Him, 
it  should  make  us  glad  and  confident.  Some  one  said 
to  me  not  long  ago  that  he  was  struck  with  the  number 
of  hopeless  ministers.  There  were  so  many  men  who 
had  everything  against  them,  who  had  an  uphill  fight, 
who  despaired  of  making  any  more  of  it ;  they  were 
pithless,  apathetic,  resigned ;  they  entered  beaten  into 
the  battle,  or  did  not  enter  into  it  at  all.  I  will  say 
nothing  unsympathetic  of  men  whom  it  is  not  for  their 
brethren  to  judge,  but  I  will  say  this  to  every  one  who 
has  accepted  this  vocation — that  when  we  preach  the 


HAPPINESS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA      6i 

Gospel  it  must  be  in  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  It  must 
be  with  the  sympathy  of  Jesus  for  all  who  are  yearn- 
ing after  God,  and  with  the  certainty  of  Jesus  that  in 
Him  there  is  the  revelation  of  God  which  will  bring 
happiness  to  all  yearning  souls.  So  preached,  it  can- 
not be  in  vain.  In  Bengal  and  in  Scotland,  in  our  own 
race,  and  in  the  races  most  remote  from  our  own, 
there  are  souls  desiring  to  see  the  things  that  we  see, 
and  destined  to  be  blessed  w^ith  the  vision.  The 
evangelist's  is  no  calling  for  a  joyless  and  dispirited 
man.  "  Blessed  is  the  people  that  know  the  joyful 
sound  :  they  shall  walk,  O  Lord,  in  the  light  of  Thy 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY. 

"And  David  said  ...  let  him  curse,  for  the  Lord  hath  bidden  him." 
2  Samuel  xvi.  ii. 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  a  provocation  more  exas- 
perating than  that  which  David  met  in  this  chastened 
spirit.  As  the  old  King  of  Israel,  once  the  darling  of 
his  people,  was  making  his  escape  from  Jerusalem,  a 
man  who  had  some  family  connexion  with  Saul  came 
out  to  gloat  over  his  downfall.  **  Come  out,  come  out," 
he  cried,  *'thou  man  of  blood,  thou  man  of  Belial;  the 
Lord  hath  returned  upon  thee  all  the  blood  of  the  house 
of  Saul  in  whose  stead  thou  hast  reigned."  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  malignant  and  unjust.  If  David 
had  exterminated  the  house  of  Saul  when  he  came  to 
the  throne,  he  would  only  have  done  what  was  common 
in  those  times  upon  a  change  of  dynasty ;  but  in  point  of 
fact  he  had  shown  for  his  friend  Jonathan's  sake  a  rare 
and  distinguished  generosity  to  the  descendants  of  his 
predecessor.  He  was  slandered  in  the  very  point  on 
which  he  might  well  have  prided  himself,  and  we 
cannot  wonder  that  the  combined  insolence  and  false- 
hood of  Shimei  provoked  the  soldiers  in  his  escort. 
Abishai  would  have  made  short  work  of  the  malignant 
Benjamite  if  only  David  had  allowed  him.  But  David 
had  other  thoughts  in  his  heart,  and  it  was  the  words 
of  Shimei  that  had  roused  them.  He  was  not  a  man 
of  blood,  in  general  terms,  but  there  was  blood  on  his 

(62) 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY  63 

conscience  for  all  that.  He  was  not  a  man  of  Belial, 
in  general  terms,  a  worthless  vicious  character,  but 
there  was  a  hideous  tragedy  in  which  he  was  the  villain. 
It  was  not  the  tragedy  of  the  house  of  Saul,  but  of  the 
house  of  Uriah  the  Hittite.  The  words  of  Shimei 
brought  vividly  to  his  remembrance  things  which 
touched  him  more  deeply  than  any  human  malice  could 
conceive — so  deeply  that  in  presence  of  them  resent- 
ment could  not  live.  David  knew  worse  about  himself 
than  Shimei's  bitter  tongue  could  ever  tell.  And  it  is 
the  same  with  us.  The  most  malignant  taunts  of  our 
enemies  wound  us,  not  by  what  they  are,  but  by  what 
they  remind  us  of  And  in  bringing  our  real  sins  to 
remembrance,  they  not  only  silence  resentment  on  our 
part,  but  call  us  to  reflection,  to  patience,  to  humility, 
to  penitence.  It  is  only  so  that  the  wistful  hope  of 
David  may  be  fulfilled  for  us  :  "  It  may  be  that  the 
Lord  will  look  on  mine  affliction,  and  that  the  Lord 
will  requite  me  good  for  His  cursing  this  day  ". 

I  wish  to  speak  of  some  accusations — in  the  main 
false  accusations — that  have  been  brought  against  such 
people  as  ourselves,  such  Churches  and  such  Christians 
as  we  are ;  and  of  the  manner  in  which  we  ought  to 
find  spiritual  profit  in  them. 

Not  long  ago,  in  the  appeal  of  a  French  missionary 
society  for  a  week  of  self-denial,  I  found  the  following 
description  of  Protestantism  by  a  well-known  Roman 
Catholic  teacher.  "  Protestantism  is  essentially  the 
abolition  of  sacrifice.  To  abolish  mortification,  abstin- 
ence, and  fasting;  to  abolish  the  necessity  of  good 
works,  effort,  struggle,  virtue ;  to  shut  up  sacrifice  in 
Jesus  alone,  and  not  to  let  it  pass  over  upon  ourselves; 
no  longer  to  say  with  St.   Paul,  *  I  suffer  that  which 


64  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

remains  to  be  suffered  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Saviour ' ; 
but  rather  to  say  to  the  crucified  Jesus,  *  Suffer  alone,  O 
Lord' — there  you  have  Protestantism."  Let  us  put  it 
quite  definitely  and  apply  it  to  ourselves  :  "  There  you 
have  your  religion,  a  religion  without  renunciation, 
without  sacrifice,  without  that  self-crucifixion  which 
is  the  very  essence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  ".  This  is 
how  it  actually  appears  to  some  people,  and  how  they 
actually  speak  of  it ;  but  how  are  we  to  take  it  ?  It  is 
easy  to  reply  to  the  injustice  it  contains,  and  even  to 
retort  upon  it.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  we  are 
apt  to  say,  provides  careers  of  renunciation  for  some 
of  its  members  which  are  only  too  visible — not  visible 
only  but  ostentatious.  The  orders  of  men  and  women 
who  take  vows  of  poverty,  celibacy,  and  obedience — 
who  explicitly  give  up  property  of  their  own,  a  family 
life  of  their  own,  even  a  will  of  their  own,  in  the  daily 
ordering  of  their  life — are  conspicuous  enough.  Their 
sacrifices  are  not  hidden ;  whatever  they  are,  every 
one  can  see  them.  But  history  has  anything  but  a 
favourable  verdict  to  pass  on  this  type  of  renunciation, 
and  we  have  no  disposition  to  be  humble  because  we 
do  not  produce  monastic  orders.  We  are  more  inclined 
to  rake  up  the  scandalous  chronicle  of  monastic  history, 
and  to  thank  God  that  Christianity  in  this  form  is 
with  us  a  thing  of  the  past.  But  that  will  not  do  us 
much  good.  The  question  remains,  how  comes  it 
that  Protestant  Christianity  ever  made  on  a  Romanist 
like  Pere  Gratry  the  impression  which  it  apparently 
did  make.  Granting  that  the  religious  orders  have  all 
the  demerits  and  drawbacks  that  history  reveals,  are 
they  not  wrong  forms  of  a  right  thing  ?  And  have  we 
got  that  right  thing  in  our  life,  in  the  place  and  the 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY  65 

power  which  are  its  due  ?  In  plain  Enghsh,  has  the 
cross  its  proper  place  in  our  religion?  Probably  the 
cross  of  Christ  has.  We  have  all  been  brought  up  to 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified  :  to  us  as  to 
St.  Paul  this  is  the  epitome  of  Christianity.  He  bore 
the  cross  alone,  and  no  one  could  help  Him  ;  He  finished 
there  the  work  of  atonement  which  nothing  men  can  do 
can  ever  supplement.  This  is  quite  true,  but  quite  irre- 
levant. Jesus  not  only  spoke  of  His  cross,  but  of  ours. 
"  If  any  man  will  come  after  Me,"  he  said,  ''  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  Me."  Our 
principal  hymns  about  the  cross  are  in  the  strain, 
*'  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring,  simply  to  Thy  cross  I 
cling  ".  I  do  not  find  fault  with  that ;  it  is  the  suffering 
love  of  Christ  which  must  always  be  the  inspiration  of 
the  Church's  praise,  and  of  the  Christian's  cross-bear- 
ing. But  what  about  our  own  cross,  not  the  one  to 
which  we  cling,  but  the  one  which  we  bear,  and  on 
which  we  are  crucified  ?  Is  there  really  such  a  thing  ? 
I  do  not  ask  whether  anybody  else  knows  of  it — it  is 
nobody  else's  business — but  whether  we  ourselves 
know.  Is  there  really  such  a  thing  as  self-denial  in 
our  lives  ?  Have  we  ever  made  for  Christ's  sake  re- 
nunciations and  sacrifices  which  are  painfully  felt? 
Can  we  go  back  to  some  hour  in  our  life,  or  is  there 
something  present  in  our  experience  even  now,  in 
virtue  of  which  we  can  say  that  we  know  what  is  meant 
by  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  sufferings,  or  that  we 
have  been  able  to  drink  of  His  cup  ?  I  believe  it  is  a 
slander  to  say  that  Protestantism  means  the  abolition 
of  sacrifice,  but  it  is  a  slander  that  should  call  to  re- 
membrance much  self-indulgence,  much  complacency, 
much  contentment  with  the  average  moral  standard  of 

5 


66  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  world  around  us,  much  forgetfulness  of  Christ's 
demand  for  a  denied  and  crucified  self.  It  is  not  re- 
sentment or  retaliation  it  requires,  but  the  spirit  in 
which  David  said,  "  Let  him  curse,  for  the  Lord  hath 
bidden  him  ". 

Here  is  another  illustration.  Two  years  ago  our 
churches,  in  common  with  the  churches  of  the  Reforma- 
tion everywhere,  were  celebrating  the  quatercentenary 
of  the  birth  of  Calvin.  Innumerable  speeches  were 
delivered  in  appreciation  of  the  work  and  influence  of 
that  great  man.  Among  others  there  was  a  speech 
by  a  French  man  of  letters  which  contained  a  notable 
criticism  of  the  Calvinistic  type  of  Christianity.  The 
speaker  made  the  amplest  acknowledgment  of  what 
Calvinism  had  done  not  only  for  political  liberty,  but 
in  particular  for  enhghtenment,  for  education,  and  for 
science  generally.  But  incidentally,  he  argued,  it  had 
intellectualized  Christianity.  It  had  laid  stress  on  clear 
views  of  truth,  and  on  the  building  up  of  such  systems 
of  theology  as  we  have  in  our  catechisms  and  confes- 
sions of  faith.  And  in  doing  so  it  had  made  Christian- 
ity, perhaps  unconsciously,  a  thing  for  men  only,  and 
even  for  educated  men  in  whom  the  logical  faculties 
are  properly  developed  ;  it  had  destroyed  or  impaired 
its  poetry,  its  power  of  appeal  to  children,  to  the  un- 
educated, to  imaginative  and  emotional  natures.  Here, 
again,  I  have  no  doubt  there  are  answers  to  be  given. 
We  know  that  the  children  in  our  homes  do  get  into 
the  secret  of  our  religion,  and  to  those  who  have  been 
brought  up  on  the  open  Bible  and  who  know  all  its 
finest  pages  by  heart  it  is  absurd  to  speak  of  the  poetry 
of  religion  being  lost.  Nevertheless,  we  do  not  profit 
spiritually  by  speaking  back,  but  by  laying  it  to  heart 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY  ^y 

when  even  the  curse  of  a  Shimei  touches  our  con- 
science. Is  it  not  true,  after  all,  that  the  stalwart 
forms  of  Protestantism — those  which,  as  Burke  has  it, 
represent  the  dissidence  of  dissent,  the  Protestantism 
of  the  Protestant  rehgion — do  tend  to  lose  social 
power  ?  Intelligence  is  cultivated,  and  independence, 
and  the  sense  of  individual  responsibility — all  good 
things,  yet  all  things  capable  of  degeneration  and  dis- 
proportion— and  the  sense  of  solidarity  tends  to  be 
lost.  It  is  one  of  the  imperfections  of  our  Church,  even 
though  it  be  an  unfriendly  voice  which  reminds  us  of 
it,  that  it  does  not  conspicuously  provide  a  spiritual 
atmosphere  which  all  pious  souls  can  breath  alike, 
whatever  their  intellectual  inequalities  or  even  dis- 
agreements may  be.  There  is  something  wrong  here, 
and  I  beheve  it  is  correctly  diagnosed  in  the  charge 
that  we  have  intellectualized  our  religion  to  excess. 
Religion  is  no  doubt  truth,  and  it  is  right  for  all  who 
believe  in  it  to  try  to  find  the  most  precise  and  adequate 
expression  for  the  truth,  but  the  value  of  such  intel- 
lectual definitions  is  always  secondary.  The  truth  of 
which  the  Bible  speaks  is  not  only  an  intellectual  truth 
which  can  be  exhibited  in  doctrinal  propositions ;  it  is 
a  truth,  according  to  the  Apostles,  which  has  not  only 
to  be  believed  and  known,  but  to  be  loved  and  done. 
It  is  something  which  has  a  spell  in  it  to  command 
affection  and  submission  ;  it  is  something  of  which  we 
have  only  an  imperfect  apprehension  till  we  realize 
that  it  is  identical  with  Jesus — "  I  am  the  truth  " ;  and 
who  does  not  feel  that  the  sense  of  this  personal,  win- 
ning, commanding  truth  is  too  easily  lost  by  those  who 
are  zealous  (as  we  all  should  be)  for  sound  doctrine  ? 
Perhaps  this  number  is  not  very  large  in  our  time  ;  far 


68  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

more  of  us  care  nothing  for  Christian  truth  than  too 
much.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  charge  of  in- 
tellectuahzing  Christianity  may  come  home  to  some 
consciences  in  another  way.  It  is  not  that  we  exalt  the 
logical  faculties  in  religion  at  the  expense  of  the  imag- 
inative or  emotional,  sacrificing  the  poetry  of  the  Gospel 
to  our  orthodoxy,  but  that  we  give  doctrinal  soundness 
the  primacy  over  moral.  Which  would  shock  you 
most,  to  hear  that  some  member  of  this  Church  had 
become  a  Unitarian  or  a  Roman  Catholic,  or  to  hear 
that  he  had  been  seen  drunk,  or  that  his  books  would 
not  balance  ?  I  think  I  understand  that  state  of  mind 
to  which  the  moral  seems  less  heinous  than  the  doc- 
trinal defection,  but  surely  the  most  malignant  voice 
that  can  make  us  conscious  of  it,  and  shake  us  out  of 
it,  is  the  voice  of  God.  How  profoundly  inconsistent 
it  is  with  all  the  great  fundamental  utterances  of  the 
New  Testament  on  the  true  nature  of  Christianity. 
**  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  Me  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  My  Father  which  is  in  Heaven."  "If  we 
know  that  He  is  righteous,  we  know  that  every  one 
that  doeth  righteousness  is  born  of  Him."  ''Circum- 
cision is  nothing  and  uncircumcision  is  nothing,  but 
the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God."  Words 
like  these,  in  which  our  Lord  and  the  greatest  of  His 
Apostles  unite,  put  us  at  the  true  point  of  view  for 
judging  what  is  and  is  not  vital  in  the  Church,  and  God 
requites  us  good  for  any  curse  which  compels  us  to  lay 
them  to  heart. 

There  is  something  akin  to  this  in  another  criticism 
of  the  Church,  with  which  we  are  all  familiar.  Nothing 
is  commoner  than  to  hear  the  church,  and  especially 
its  office-bearers,  denounced  as  guilty  of  downright 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY     69 

dishonesty  with  regard  to  its  creed.  They  profess  to 
believe  it,  we  are  told,  but  they  do  not  and  cannot  be- 
lieve it.  They  sign  it  on  important  occasions  with 
solemn  declarations  of  sincerity,  and  it  is  notorious 
that  they  are  not  sincere.  No  person  of  ordinary  in- 
telligence and  education  could  possibly  accept  in  the 
twentieth  century  the  intellectual  statement  of  religion 
which  suited  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth.  The  whole 
thing  is  revolting  in  its  untruthfulness.  Now  it  is  quite 
easy  here  also  to  repel  what  is  most  offensive  in  such 
charges.  They  are  often  made  by  people  who  reject 
Christianity  altogether,  and  who  cannot  understand 
that  it  still  has  power  to  win  the  assent  and  allegiance 
even  of  educated  men.  They  are  often  made  by  those 
who  forget  that  assent  by  an  individual  to  what  is  part 
of  the  constitution  of  a  society  does  not  mean  that  the 
individual  is  to  be  annihilated  in  the  interest  of  the 
society.  A  man  may  be  thoroughly  loyal  in  accepting 
the  constitution  of  his  country  though  he  thinks  it 
capable  of  amendment,  and  thoroughly  loyal  in  accept- 
ing the  creed  of  his  Church  though  he  would  like  to 
see  it  cleared  or  simplified.  In  point  of  fact  our  Church 
expressly  gives  those  who  sign  its  confession  liberty 
to  dissent  from  it  on  matters  not  entering  into  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Reformed  faith  :  which  is  as  ample  a 
Hberty  perhaps  as  can  be  granted  to  those  who  wish 
to  maintain  their  connexion  with  Christian  history. 
But  when  everything  has  been  said  in  defence  of  the 
present  situation  which  can  be  said,  is  there  not  some- 
thing even  in  the  sneers  and  slanders  of  outsiders 
which  should  go  to  our  conscience  ?  Why  should  it 
be  necessary  to  make  any  excuses  at  all  ?  Why 
should  the  Christian  Church,  which  is  spoken  of  in 
Scripture  as  the  pillar  and  buttress  of  the  truth,  of 


70  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

all  institutions  in  the  world  have  to  be  perpetually 
defending  itself  against  charges  of  insincerity,  or  even 
of  downright  falsehood  ?  Why  do  we  ask  men  still  to 
sign  what  needs  always  a  certain  amount  of  explaining 
away  ?  Why  do  we  rack  our  brains  to  invent  elastic 
formulae  which  will  seem  to  bind  us  to  certain  doctrinal 
statements  but  really  leave  us  a  good  deal  of  rope  ? 
Why  should  it  be  possible  for  anyone  to  say  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  declares  its  acceptance  of  the 
Westminster  Confession  in  language  the  whole  recom- 
mendation of  which  is  that  it  is  thoroughly  equivocal, 
or  that  in  the  United  Free  Church  acceptance  of  the 
Confession  is  eased  by  a  declaratory  act  which  declares 
with  regard  to  certain  main  doctrines  of  the  Con- 
fession what  the  Confession  itself  does  not  declare  ? 
Ought  we  not  to  get  out  of  the  doubtful  situations 
which  give  even  plausibility  to  such  impeachments  of 
our  honesty?  Ought  we  not  to  find  a  broad  and 
simple  expression  for  our  faith  in  Christ  and  loyalty  to 
Him  which  could  be  sincerely  accepted  by  all  who  call 
Jesus  Lord,  and  trust  in  Him  for  salvation  ?  People 
say  this  is  not  a  creed-making  age.  Neither  it  is. 
But  what  if  there  should  never  be  a  creed-making  age, 
in  the  sense  of  the  seventeenth  century,  again  ?  Even 
a  good  Christian,  I  think,  might  be  content  to  believe 
that  the  Gospel  would  perpetuate  its  power  in  society 
and  in  individual  souls  without  burdening  anyone  with 
such  a  complete  intellectual  outfit.  It  creates  needless 
difficulties,  and  sometimes  does  tempt  to  equivocation 
and  insincerity.  And  when  we  are  denounced  for  such 
vices  by  unsympathetic  outsiders,  let  us  remember 
what  David  said  about  Shimei.  It  may  be  done  in  de- 
spite and  hatred,  yet  it  is  God  who  is  caUing  on  us 
to  enter  into  our  conscience,  and  to  make  our  ways 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY  71 

clear  and  simple  before  Him.  There  would  not  be  the 
possibility  of  such  cursing  if  we  were  walking  in  the 
light  as  He  is  in  the  light. 

I  will  take  one  example  more.  The  Church  is 
cursed  at  the  present  time  with  great  heartiness  by 
many  who  profess  themselves  the  friends  of  the  poor. 
There  is  a  sociahst  criticism  which  denounces  it  as  es- 
sentially a  capitalist  institution,  an  inhuman  thing.  It 
is  always  on  the  side  of  the  rich,  or  at  least  of  the  well- 
to-do.  The  working  classes  are  lost  to  it  just  because 
they  have  gradually  come  to  see  that  it  has  no  interest 
in  them.  It  is  the  abode  of  the  selfish,  who  may  wxU 
be  content  with  things  as  they  are,  and  who  care  noth- 
ing for  the  disinherited,  the  hopeless,  and  the  wronged. 
You  will  not  imagine  that  I  am  going  to  discuss  the 
relations  of  the  Church  and  socialism,  or  even  to  discuss 
what  might  be  said  in  reply  to  such  charges.  We  all 
know  the  amount  of  falsehood  and  malice  which  is  in 
them.  I  preach  in  a  different  church  almost  every 
Sunday,  but  I  have  never  preached  in  a  church  of 
capitalists  yet.  There  are  churches  and  individual 
Christians,  we  are  well  aware,  that  are  distinguished 
for  their  sympathy  with  the  poor,  and  for  their  works 
of  practical  beneficence.  But  instead  of  resenting  or 
retaliating,  let  us  ask  what  is  the  voice  of  God  which 
becomes  audible  in  our  hearts  through  such  slanders 
or  beneath  them.  What  is  our  real  attitude  to  the 
poor  ?  Is  it  the  least  like  the  fraternal  attitude  of 
Jesus  in  the  Gospel  ?  or  do  we  not  rather  incline  to 
judge  them  with  a  certain  hardness  of  heart  ?  If  we 
are  not  poor  ourselves,  we  think  we  have  earned  it ; 
we  have  made  our  position  of  moderate  comfort,  or  of 
modest  independence;  we  have  been  diligent,  self- 
denying,  thrifty,  independent ;  and  we  see  no  reason 


72  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

why  others  should  not  be  so,  or  take  the  consequences. 
If  people  are  poor,  they  have  earned  that  also  :  let 
them  be  poor.  It  is  impossible  to  alter  the  laws  under 
which  God  administers  human  affairs,  and  this  is  one 
of  them.  Of  course  there  is  such  a  thing  as  bad  health, 
and  even  perhaps  as  bad  luck,  and  we  do  not  wish  to 
be  unsympathetic ;  but,  broadly  speaking,  people  get  in 
the  world  what  they  work  for,  and  if  we  take  our  own 
responsibilities  we  must  not  be  asked  to  take  other 
people's  as  well.  This  is  the  line  on  which  much  of 
our  thinking  and  feeling  spontaneously  moves,  but 
simply  to  follow  it  is  not  the  way  to  get  the  good  out 
of  curses.  I  am  sure  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  follow 
it  in  the  presence  of  Jesus.  When  we  think  of  it,  the 
economical  principles  by  which  men  get  on  in  the 
world  are  not  identical  with  His  teaching  in  this  region. 
They  do  not  contain  everything  which  it  contained.  In 
the  staple  of  our  thoughts,  in  our  ordinary  temper, 
there  is  much  inhumanity,  much  disinclination  to  think 
of  the  burdens  and  disabilities  of  others,  much  reluct- 
ance to  give  practical  effect  to  the  idea  that  society  is 
truly  Christianized  only  in  proportion  as  the  things 
which  we  value  most  are  shared  by  all.  This  is  the 
truth  which  the  cursing  of  the  Church  by  socialism 
should  teach  us,  and  it  is  to  teach  it,  doubtless,  that 
God  has  permitted  the  cursing.  Can  anyone  deny, 
for  example,  that  the  mind  of  Christ  about  money,  and 
the  mind  of  the  ordinary  Christian  about  money,  are 
worlds  apart  ?  The  one  thing  most  of  us  are  afraid  of 
is  to  be  poor ;  the  one  thing  which  He  really  dreaded 
for  men  was  to  be  rich.  How  hardly,  He  said,  that 
is,  with  what  difficulty,  shall  a  rich  man  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  !  *'  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  ENEMY  73 

enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  The  socialist  criti- 
cism of  the  Church  may  be  malignant  or  absurd,  but  do 
any  of  us  believe  that?  Is  there  one  of  us  who,  if  he 
had  the  opportunity  to  become  rich,  would  decline  it 
because  he  was  risking  his  soul  ?  Is  there  one  of  us 
who  could  be  sure  that  to  come  into  the  possession  of 
wealth  would  not  intensify  his  love  of  wealth,  and 
make  him  not  only  less  liberal,  but  less  humane,  more 
on  his  guard  against  impostors,  more  rigorous  and 
self-righteous  in  his  judgment  of  the  poor,  more  ex- 
clusive and  self-centred,  less  expansive,  sympathetic, 
and  kind  ?  It  is  bitter  to  be  charged  falsely  with  vices 
which  may  be  quite  alien  to  our  character,  but  it  is 
rarely  that  even  a  false  charge  does  not  bring  some- 
thing to  our  remembrance  to  humble  us  in  the  presence 
of  God.  It  is  of  no  profit  to  us  to  be  angered  by 
slander,  and  to  retort  upon  those  who  utter  it ;  very 
likely  the  one  may  be  as  easy  as  the  other.  The  real 
profit  is  when  it  brings  us  into  contact  with  something 
in  our  life  to  which  in  our  self-complacency  we  have 
been  blind — something  of  which  the  slanderer  knows 
nothing,  but  which -we  feel  before  God  more  deeply 
than  any  wound  He  could  inflict — and  when  we  give 
ourselves  in  God's  presence  with  penitence  and  hu- 
mility to  set  it  right  with  Him.  There  are  such  things, 
such  memories,  in  the  lives  of  all  men ;  and  perhaps 
in  surveying  the  unjust  and  malignant  things  said 
about  the  Church  or  about  Christians  in  general  we 
have  all  been  secretly  reminded  of  some  of  them.  It 
is  good  to  be  reminded.  It  is  good  to  take  them  to 
heart.  It  is  good  to  put  resentment  away,  and  with  a 
contrite  heart  seek  forgiveness  and  amendment  from 
God.  It  is  thus  he  brings  good  out  of  evil,  and  re- 
quites blessing  for  the  curse. 


CREATION. 

"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." — 
Genesis  i.  i. 

The  Bible  begins  with  God  :  that  is  one  of  the 
marks  which  distinguish  it  not  only  from  much 
ordinary  thinking,  but  even  from  many  of  what  are 
called  religious  books.  It  never  attempts  to  prove 
that  God  exists  :  the  existence  of  God  is  for  it  the 
primary  certainty.  It  never  seeks  to  rise  through 
nature  up  to  nature's  God ;  for  the  Bible  writers,  God 
is  far  nearer,  far  surer,  far  more  vividly  real  than 
nature.  A  heathen  writer  who  wished  to  give  such 
an  account  of  the  universe  as  we  find  in  this  chapter 
would  start  with  the  world,  or  with  the  dim  confusion 
of  elements  out  of  which  the  world  was  to  emerge  ; 
and  in  due  time,  as  the  confusion  settled  into  order, 
the  gods  would  appear  in  their  proper  place  among 
the  other  beings  constituting  the  universe.  To  such 
a  writer,  in  short,  his  gods  are  part  of  the  world  ; 
they  belong  to  the  glory  and  beauty  which  he  sees 
around  him ;  but  to  the  Israelite  his  God  is  before 
the  world  and  above  it ;  He  is  its  Creator ;  from 
beginning  to  end  it  is  absolutely  dependent  on  Him. 
A  modern  mind,  again,  is  apt  to  think  of  the  world 
without  thinking  of  God  or  of  gods  at  all.  The  idea 
of  creation  has  been  displaced  in  it  by  that  of  nature. 
Nature  means    the    world   regarded   as   a  system  of 

(74) 


CREATION  75 

things  having  its  life  in  itself,  and  capable  of  being 
interpreted  without  looking  beyond  it.  In  this  there 
is  no  doubt  a  relative  truth.  Such  as  it  is,  the  world 
is  there,  and  it  has  an  independence  of  its  own.  But 
the  Bible  point  of  view  is  that  it  owes  this  independ- 
ence to  God.  He  has  given  to  it  to  have  life  in  itself, 
yet  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being  in  Him. 

The  main  aspects  in  which  creation  is  viewed  in 
Scripture  are  two.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  creation 
out  of  nothing.  The  world  is  originally  and  for  ever 
dependent  on  a  power  beyond  itself  It  has  no  value, 
no  reality,  no  being,  but  what  it  owes  to  Him  who 
created  and  who  sustains  it.  It  is  passing,  passing, 
passing,  but  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  He  is  God. 
In  the  second  place,  it  is  creation  in  Christ.  This  is 
an  idea  on  which  great  stress  is  laid  in  the  later  New 
Testament  books.  For  Him  who  sees  into  the  heart 
of  things,  in  the  light  of  the  Christian  revelation,  the 
world  is  not  merely  a  vast  system  of  natural  phenom- 
ena, it  has  a  Divine  and  indeed  a  Christian  meaning. 
It  is  all  here  with  Christ  in  view.  Nature  is  destined 
from  the  first  to  rise  into  a  human  and  spiritual  king- 
dom ;  embedded  in  its  original  constitution  is  a  refer- 
ence to  the  Person  and  the  Sovereignty  of  Christ. 
There  is  not  only  the  seal  of  God  upon  it,  but  in  some 
deep  mysterious  way  there  is  the  promise  of  Christ 
in  it.  It  is  nearly  a  generation  now  since  Professor 
Drummond's  '*  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World  " 
profoundly  impressed  a  wide  circle  of  Christian 
readers ;  but  what  the  Bible  doctrine  of  creation  in 
Christ  implies  is  something  far  more  wonderful  and 
Divine — it  is  spiritual  law  in  the  natural  world,  the 
tokens  of  Christ's  presence  and  working  in  the  whole 


76  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

field  of  being.  It  is  not,  however,  these  general  aspects 
of  Bible  teaching  on  creation  which  I  wish  to  consider 
at  present,  but  rather  the  religious  significance  of  the 
doctrine  of  creation  as  Scripture  reveals  it.  This  may 
be  put  under  four  heads. 

I.  To  begin  with,  creation  in  Scripture  constantly 
appears  as  an  inspiration  to  worship.  The  contempla- 
tion of  heaven  and  earth  fills  the  mind  with  adoring 
thoughts  of  God.  We  see  it  in  Psalms  like  the  8th, 
the  19th,  the  29th,  the  36th,  the  104th,  and  many  more. 
"  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  His  handiwork.  Day  unto  day  uttereth 
speech,  and  night  unto  night  teacheth  knowledge. 
There  is  no  speech  nor  language ;  their  voice  is  not 
heard.  Their  line  is  gone  into  all  the  earth,  and 
their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world."  The  Psalmist 
does  not  mean  that  he  came  to  know  God  by  studying 
astronomy  ;  on  the  contrary,  his  mind  was  full  of  God 
when  he  looked  up  at  the  heavens  over  his  head ;  but 
the  changing  splendours  of  night  and  day  gave  him  a 
new  sense  of  God's  greatness,  and  opened  his  lips  in 
adoration.  Every  one  who  knows  God  at  all  knows 
that  He  is  great,  but  it  is  through  the  works  of  God 
in  nature  that  imagination  is  quickened  to  apprehend 
His  greatness,  and  that  all  that  is  within  us  is  stirred 
up  to  magnify  His  name.  We  do  not  praise  Him  as 
we  should  till  Nature,  too,  inspires  our  praise,  and  we 
join  our  voices  to  those  who  cry :  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  :  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  His 
glory". 

This  inspiration  to  worship  is  peculiarly  needed  at 
present  for  two  reasons.  One  is  the  accidental  reason 
that  such  a  vast  proportion  of  men  now  dwell  in  cities. 


CREATION  yy 

where  Nature,  it  may  almost  be  said,  has  ceased  to  be 
an  appreciable  part  of  the  environment  of  their  life. 
They  do  not  see  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  very  often 
not  the  face  of  the  sky.  "  Thou  hast  made  summer 
and  winter,"  says  the  worshipping  Psalmist,  but  sum- 
mer and  winter  are  all  one  in  our  blank  stony  streets. 
"  Thou  crownest  the  year  with  Thy  goodness,"  he  says 
again  ;  but  the  townsman's  year  has  no  crown  ;  unless 
he  gets  a  holiday  in  the  country,  it  is  one  monotonous 
strip  of  time.  No  doubt  it  is  in  the  providence  of  God 
that  city  life  has  developed,  but  whatever  the  virtues 
it  evokes  in  man,  whatever  the  stimulus  it  applies  to 
his  intellect,  his  ambition,  his  faculty  for  government, 
it  will  hardly  be  contended  that  it  is  favourable  to 
worship.  It  is  rather  in  the  face  of  nature  than  amid 
the  importunate  pressures  of  society  that  we  can  lose 
ourselves  in  the  adoring  contemplation  of  God.  And 
when  we  get  the  opportunity  to  do  so,  surely  it  is  a 
sin  as  well  as  a  folly  to  carry  as  much  as  we  can  of  the 
city's  drawbacks  into  the  country,  and  to  prefer  holiday 
resorts  haunted  by  the  same  excitements  which  make 
it  hard  to  realize  God's  presence  when  we  are  at  home. 
"  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  hills." 

The  second  reason  why  we  need  that  inspiration  for 
worship  which  comes  from  nature  is  more  serious  :  it 
is  that  our  religion  is  specifically  a  religion  of  redemp- 
tion. The  question  in  which  it  originates  on  our  side 
is.  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  and  when  that  ques- 
tion has  once  been  seriously  asked,  we  soon  realize 
that  nature  can  do  nothing  to  answer  it.  Neither 
earth  nor  sky  nor  sea — neither  sun,  moon,  nor  stars — 
have  a  word  to  say  to  the  man  who  is  suffering  from 
a  bad  conscience.     Hence  when  such  a  man  finds  the 


78  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Healer  and  the  Saviour  he  requires,  he  is  apt  to  con- 
centrate  his   rehgion   in    the   sphere   of    conscience. 
What  is  worse,  he  is  tempted  to  concentrate  it  upon 
himself.     He  may  sink  so  far  as  to  imagine  that  God 
only  exists  to  minister  to  him,  and  that  he  and  not  God 
is  the   centre   of  spiritual    interest    in    the   universe. 
There  are  other  checks  upon  this  repulsive  degener- 
ation of  what  should  be  the  highest  type  of  rehgion — 
the  rehgion  of  the  man  who  has  been  redeemed  by  the 
passion  of  a  Divine  love — but  they  need  not  be  con- 
sidered  here.     All  I  wish  to  say  is  that  one  of  the 
preservatives  against  it  is  the  surrender  of  the  soul  to 
those  impulses  to  worship  which  come  from  the  con- 
templation of  nature.     What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? 
is  a  question  apart  from  which  there  is  no  Christianity, 
but  it  is  not  the  only  question  which  rises  spontane- 
ously in  the  soul  made  for  God.     ''  Who  hath  measured 
the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand,  and  meted  out 
heaven  with  the  span,  and  comprehended  the  dust  of 
the  earth  in  a  measure,  and  weighed  the  mountains  in 
scales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance?"     These  also  are 
religious  questions,  and  it  is  a  poor  religion  which  does 
not  ask  them,  and  find  in  that  which  prompts  them  a 
new  motive  for  worship.     There  is  something  pedantic 
in  Sir  John  Seeley's  idea  that  the  God  worshipped  by 
the  astronomer  and  the  geologist,  dwelling  as  they  do 
in  the  immensities  of  space  and  time,  is  greater  and 
more  wonderful  than  the  God  of  the  average  Christian. 
I  do  not  beheve  that  even  Kepler  or  Newton  was  more 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  starry  heaven,  or  by  the 
unsearchable  greatness  of  God  revealed  in  it,  than  Job 
or  Homer  or  the  Psalmists.     It  is  not  science  that  is 
needed  to  enrich  religion  here— though  no  question  it 


CREATION  79 

has  its  contribution  to  make — but  contact  with  nature 
and  sensibility  to  it.  It  is  through  the  senses,  not 
through  science,  that  imagination  is  impressed ;  but 
we  need  this  impression  to  give  elevation,  dignity,  and 
calm  to  worship,  and  to  free  it  from  settling  feverishly 
on  ourselves.  The  New  Testament  is  not  to  be  cut  off 
from  the  Old,  and  it  would  be  an  immense  enrichment 
of  worship  in  many  churches  if  they  abridged  their 
hymn-books,  in  which  ** personal"  religion  has  run 
wild,  and  praised  God  oftener  in  Psalms  like  those  just 
mentioned. 

2.  To  go  on  to  a  second  point :  creation  appears  in 
Scripture  not  only  as  an  inspiration  to  worship,  but  as 
an  inspiration  to  trust  in  God.  This  is  perhaps  the 
point  on  which  most  stress  is  laid  in  the  Bible  itself : 
the  doctrine  of  creation  is  called  up  to  reassure  those 
whose  faith  is  being  almost  too  severely  tried.  We 
find  a  striking  instance  of  this  in  Jeremiah.  God 
bids  Jeremiah  buy  and  pay  for  a  field  on  which  the 
Chaldean  armies  were  encamped,  with  the  assurance 
that  it  was  quite  a  safe  investment ;  in  spite  of  its 
occupation  by  an  irresistible  enemy,  houses  and  fields 
and  vineyards  should  yet  again  be  bought  in  that  land. 
Jeremiah  completed  the  bargain  half  despairing,  and 
then,  not  to  fall  wholly  into  despair,  he  prayed,  **  Ah, 
Lord  God !  behold,  Thou  hast  made  the  heaven  and 
the  earth  by  Thy  great  power  and  by  Thy  stretched 
out  arm ;  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for  Thee  ".  That  is 
the  use  of  this  doctrine.  When  we  let  it  sink  into 
our  minds,  heaven  and  earth  become  a  kind  of  pic- 
ture of  God's  omnipotence  ;  they  are  reassuring  to 
all  who  trust  in  Him ;  they  tell  them  with  a  sublime 
communicative  confidence  that  God  is  able  to  keep  His 


8o  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

word.  And  is  it  not  this  which  explains  the  peculiar 
appeal  to  God  in  a  prayer  of  Jesus  uttered  at  a  crisis 
in  His  career  ?  '*  I  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earthy  that  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the 
wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes." 
To  judge  by  outward  signs,  it  was  an  unprosperous 
and  disappointing  time  for  Jesus ;  but  He  can  con- 
tentedly and  even  joyfully  accept  the  will  of  the  Father, 
disconcerting  as  it  seems,  because  it  is  a  sovereign  and 
omnipotent  will,  which  cannot  fail  to  achieve  its  pur- 
pose in  the  way  which  seems  good  to  it.  Just  because 
creation  is  an  index  to  God's  resources,  it  teaches  us 
not  to  despair  because  we  have  come  to  the  end  of 
our  own. 

But  nature,  according  to  Scripture,  is  an  invitation 
to  trust  on  another  ground.  It  is  a  revelation  not  only 
of  the  infinite  power  of  God,  but  of  His  constancy.  It 
is  probably  quite  true  to  say  that  the  people  who  wrote 
the  Bible  had  no  idea  of  what  we  mean  by  a  law  of 
nature;  most  of  us  have  no  very  distinct  idea  ourselves. 
But  they  had  a  strong  impression  of  the  faithfulness 
of  God  as  exhibited  in  all  the  great  aspects  of  nature, 
and  of  the  unreservedness  with  which  He  might  be 
trusted.  The  alternation  of  day  and  night  is  God's 
covenant,  and  it  is  the  very  type  of  what  can  be  de- 
pended on.  It  is  because  God  is  true  to  His  word  that 
we  can  count  upon  seedtime  and  harvest,  summer  and 
winter,  cold  and  heat.  "  For  ever,  O  Lord,  Thy  word 
is  settled  in  heaven.  Thy  faithfulness  is  unto  all 
generations  ;  Thou  hast  estabHshed  the  earth  and  it 
abideth.  They  continue  this  day  according  to  Thine 
ordinances;  for  all  are  Thy  servants."  The  laws  of 
nature,  as  we  call  them,  are  the  will  of  God  •  the  im- 


CREATION  8i 

mutability  of  its  laws,  so  far  as  it  is  a  fact  and  a  fact 
capable  of  interpretation,  means  the  constancy  of  His 
character.  They  all  invite  us  to  trust  in  Him  as  a  God 
who  is  worthy  of  trust,  and  will  not  put  us  to  confusion. 
It  is  a  bad  conscience  that  sometimes  makes  us  take 
them  otherwise.  "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap."  Why  do  we  so  often  read  this  as 
a  threat  ?  Why  do  we  not  as  instinctively  read  it  as 
a  promise?  It  is  not  one  any  more  than  the  other, 
but  a  declaration  confirmed  by  nature  on  every  hand 
that  God  is  faithful  and  can  be  counted  on  under  all 
circumstances.  He  will  not  deny  Himself  nor  fail  His 
creatures. 

Do  we  ever  stay  our  faith  thus  in  times  of  despon- 
dency, or  win  for  our  religion  the  amplitude  and  calm 
which  belong  to  such  a  sense  of  God  ?  Not  even  a 
New  Testament  believer,  fervent  as  his  trust  in  the 
Father  may  be,  can  afford  to  lose  such  a  sublime  in- 
spiration to  faith  as  Isaiah  found  in  the  midnight  sky. 
*'  Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high,  and  see  who  hath  created 
these,  that  bringeth  out  their  host  by  number  :  He 
calleth  them  all  by  name  ;  by  the  greatness  of  His 
might,  and  for  that  He  is  strong  in  power,  not  one  is 
lacking.  Why  sayest  thou,  O  Jacob,  and  speakest,  O 
Israel,  7jry  way  is  hid  from  the  Lord,  and  my  judgment 
is  passed  away  from  my  God?  He  has  forgotten  to 
do  me  justice."  If  God  is  faithful  fherey  He  will  be 
faithful  /icre.  That  is  the  very  description  of  what  He 
is — a  faithful  Creator,  as  Peter  calls  Him.  We  may 
be  sure  that  He  will  prove  true  to  every  hope  He  in- 
spires, to  every  promise  He  implants,  to  every  trust  He 
evokes.  The  laws  of  nature  do  not  restrain  His  free- 
dom :  they  proclaim  His  trustworthiness.     They  say  to 

6 


82  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

us,  in  the  voice  which  goes  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
world,  "  Fret  not  thyself  in  any  wise  ".  "  Rest  in  the 
Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  him."  He  that  believeth 
shall  not  make  haste,  but  a  peace  and  constancy  like  that 
of  nature  will  fill  his  heart  even  as  he  trusts  in  God 
the  Creator. 

3.  In  a  third  way  the  doctrine  of  creation  is  im- 
portant to  religion  :  it  contains  a  religious  motive  for 
the  study  of  the  world  around  us.  Perhaps  it  was  of 
history  rather  than  of  nature  the  Psalmist  was  thinking 
when  he  said,  "The  works  of  the  Lord  are  great: 
sought  out  of  all  them  that  have  pleasure  therein  "  ; 
but  we  may  legitimately  apply  his  words  to  our  sub- 
ject. A  philosopher  of  our  own  has  compared  the 
face  of  nature  to  visual  language — language  addressed 
not  to  the  ear  but  the  eye.  It  is  like  the  page  of  a 
book,  a  book  written  by  the  finger  of  God,  and  meant 
by  God  to  be  read  ;  and  surely  of  all  people  in  the 
world  those  who  believe  that  God  has  written  it — 
those  who  believe  that  in  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth — ought  to'  be  most  eager  to 
read  it.  Yet  in  point  of  fact  this  is  not  the  case.  We 
owe  our  religion  to  Israel,  but  not  our  science ;  and 
often  among  ourselves  we  find  that  those  who  are 
absorbed  in  religion  are  indifferent  to  science,  and 
those  who  are  devoted  to  science  are  indifferent  to 
religion.  Sometimes  in  both  cases  the  indifference 
passes  into  hostility,  and  histories  have  been  written 
of  the  conflict  between  science  and  religion.  I  am  not 
going  to  discuss  this  here,  but  surely  it  should  be  plain 
to  the  religious,  at  all  events,  that  they  can  have  no 
quarrel  with  science.  If  God  created  all  that  is,  who- 
ever finds  out  anything  about  the  world  is  finding  out 


CREATION  83 

the  truth  of  God.  He  may  not  know  this,  but  it  is  the 
fact,  nevertheless.  The  truths  of  astronomy  with  its 
infinite  spaces  and  of  geology  with  its  measureless 
times,  the  truths  of  chemistry  with  its  wonderful  com- 
binations and  of  physiology  with  its  secrets  of  Hfe  and 
death,  the  truths  of  the  higher  and  harder  sciences  of 
mind  and  history,  they  are  all  the  truths  of  God. 
They  are  there  to  enlarge  our  knowledge  and  to  exalt 
our  thoughts  of  Him,  and  every  man  of  science  is  in 
this  sense  a  minister  of  religion.  God,  in  the  works 
of  His  hands  around  us,  is  calHng  us  to  enter  into  His 
thoughts  ;  He  is  putting  his  own  powers  and  resources 
at  our  disposal,  and  it  is  not  impious,  but  a  part  of  true 
religion,  to  try  to  follow  God's  thoughts  as  they  are 
embodied  in  creation,  and  to  use  in  His  service  the 
powers  which  He  has  there  placed  within  our  reach. 

But  since  this  is  so,  and  since  it  is  so  plain,  why 
should  there  have  been  the  friction  which  has  un- 
doubtedly existed  between  men  devoted  to  science 
and  men  devoted  to  religion  ?  Why  have  religious 
people  suspected  science,  and  why  has  science  some- 
times proclaimed  war  on  religion  ?  I  suppose  the 
reason  must  be  in  the  main  that  they  have  misunder- 
stood one  another — failed  to  appreciate  each  other's 
interest  in  the  world.  The  scientific  man  looks  at  the 
world  and  calls  it  nature.  Nature  means  the  world 
regarded  as  having  its  life  in  itself;  there  it  is,  and  he 
takes  it  as  it  stands,  raising  no  question  as  to  its 
origin,  its  end,  or  its  relation  to  anything  beyond. 
But  nature  in  this  sense  is  not  a  Bible  word  at  all ;  the 
very  idea  of  it  is  foreign  to  the  Bible  ;  what  we  find 
there  is  creation,  and  creation  means  the  world  re- 
garded as   having  life  not  in  itself,    but  only  in  and 


84  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

through  God.  Nature  is  self-subsistent,  but  creation 
subsists  through  the  Creator.  Nature  is  there  for 
itself,  but  creation  is  there  as  the  scene  of  a  spiritual 
life,  the  theatre  of  the  acts  and  government  of  God. 
The  scientific  man,  who  takes  nature  one  piece  at  a 
time,  is  apt  to  feel  that  at  no  particular  point  is  God 
essential.  But  when  we  see  how  every  science  leads 
out  of  itself  into  another,  as  every  department  of  nature 
issues  into  the  whole — when  we  feel  that  all  the  truths 
of  all  the  sciences  are  parts  of  one  truth,  and  that  that 
truth  can  only  live  and  move  and  have  its  being  in  an 
eternal  mind  which  is  akin  to  our  own — then  we 
realize  that  nature  is  not  without  God,  and  without 
compromising  the  integrity  of  our  science  we  can  bring 
it  into  a  living  connexion  with  our  religion.  It  is  only 
in  this  connexion  that  the  study  of  nature  is  truly 
reverent,  and  uplifting  to  the  soul.  It  is  conscious  at 
once  of  the  nearness  of  God  in  nature,  and  of  his 
transcendence — of  the  intelligibleness  of  things,  and  of 
their  unsearchable  mystery.  In  both  these  character- 
istics it  is  akin  to  religion  :  religion  also  knows  God,  and 
knows  that  He  passes  knowledge.  If  religious  people 
had  always  done  their  part  in  the  study  of  the  works  of 
God,  that  sincere  and  reverent  study  which  their  Divine 
origin  demands ;  and  if  scientific  people  had  always 
remembered  that  every  separate  truth  becomes  false 
when  it  is  cut  off  from  relation  to  truth  as  a  whole — 
that  is,  to  the  mind  of  God — we  might  have  been 
spared  much  misunderstanding  and  strife,  and  a  more 
noble  and  intelligent  praise  would  have  gone  up  to 
God  from  the  hearts  of  all  His  children.  This  great 
reconciliation  has  yet  to  be  fully  accomplished,  but  the 
key  to  it  lies  in  the  very  first  sentence  of  the  Bible. 


CREATION  85 

4.  Our  last  inference  from  the  creation  of  all 
things  by  God  remains  :  the  life  of  man — his  life  as  a 
free  moral  being — must  have  in  the  last  resort  a 
positive  relation  to  the  world ;  or  rather  man  must 
recognize  that  in  the  last  resort  nature  is  positively 
related  to  his  moral  calling.  In  other  words,  it  is  a 
system  of  things  which  will  be  found  to  be  on  the 
side  of  man's  higher  life,  and  from  which  it  is  fatal  for 
him  to  cut  himself  off.  It  is  necessary  to  say  "in  the 
last  resort,"  for  in  ourselves,  nature  is  no  longer  what 
God  made  it ;  without  professing  to  solve  the  mystery 
of  evil,  we  must  acknowledge  that  in  us  nature  is 
rather  what  ii)e  have  made  it,  that  it  casts  a  deforming 
shadow  on  what  is  in  itself  perfect,  and  puts  the  world 
out  of  joint.  Even  if  it  were  not  so,  there  would  be 
a  certain  disproportion  between  what  we  are  and 
what  we  are  called  to  make  of  ourselves  in  the  world 
— such  a  disproportion  as  implies  effort  and  strain  in 
a  developing  moral  being — in  a  word,  the  denial  of 
self  We  cannot  imagine  any  other  situation  for 
ourselves  than  one  in  which  the  moral  life  has  to 
be  conquered \n  and  from  nature  ;  every  inch  of  morality 
has  to  be  won  in  incessant  and  resolute  conflict.  But 
though  we  must  fight  this  good  fight  till  our  last 
breath,  though  we  must  deny  the  evil  nature  that  is 
in  us,  and  put  to  death,  as  Paul  says,  our  members 
that  are  on  the  earth,  we  must  not  because  of  this 
excommunicate  the  good  creation  which  is  the  work 
of  God.  The  world  as  God  has  made  it — the  ac- 
tual world  into  which  we  are  born,  and  for  which 
on  every  side  of  our  nature  we  have  affinities — that 
whole  of  nature  into  which  we  strike  our  roots  to  the 
centre — that  and  no  other  is  the  world  in  which  we 


86  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

have  to  live  a  spiritual  life.  It  is  very  natural  when 
we  feel  the  strain  of  the  conflict  to  think  that  the  sure 
way  to  victory  is  to  renounce  the  world  altogether,  to 
cut  the  connexion  with  nature  at  the  root,  to  cultivate 
a  goodness  which  owes  nothing  to  the  world  as  God 
made  it,  and  is  a  purely  spiritual,  sublimed,  and  super- 
natural thing.  It  is  very  natural  to  do  this,  but  all 
experience  proves  it  to  be  both  a  mistaken  and  a  dis- 
astrous course.  The  virtue  that  is  not  rooted  in 
nature — that  has  not  the  sap  of  nature  in  it — that 
does  not  articulate  itself  into  the  great  life  of  the  world 
and  rejoice  in  God's  presence  and  goodness  there, 
is  an  impotent  and  ineffective  thing;  it  does  not  tell 
on  the  world  to  any  intent  of  which  God  approves ; 
it  tends  inevitably  to  be  Pharisaic,  and  is  destitute  of 
redeeming  power.  There  is  a  place  for  asceticism, 
undoubtedly,  in  every  spiritual  life,  but  it  is  not  a 
principle  which  can  claim  the  whole  sphere  of  morahty 
for  its  own.  In  the  beginning,  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth,  and  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  and 
to  be  received  with  thanksgiving.  It  is  the  morahty 
which  rests  on  this  basis,  and  not  that  which  makes  it 
a  principle  to  abstain  from  marriage  and  from  meats, 
which  can  really  estabhsh  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the 
natural  world  which  God  has  made.  We  must  rec- 
tify the  perversions  which  are  due  to  ourselves,  and 
once  right  with  our  Creator  we  shall  know  how  to  be 
right  with  all  His  works.  We  shall  be  able  to  say 
with  St.  Paul,  ''All  things  are  ours;  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God  ". 

When  we  have  passed  all  these  things  in  review — 
the  inspirations  it  yields  to  worship,  to  trust,  to  know- 
ledge, and  to  a  rich  moral  life — we  still  cannot  keep 


CREATION  87 

the  insignificance  of  nature  from  returning  on  our 
minds.  Nature  without  God  is  nothing.  Even  man 
without  God  is  nothing.  To  learn  this  is  to  learn  one 
of  the  greatest  truths  of  religion.  It  has  inspired  the 
loftiest  poetry,  or  all  but  the  loftiest. 

The  cloud-capped  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself 
And  all  which  it  inherit  shall  dissolve, 
And  like  an  insubstantial  pageant  faded 
Leave  not  a  wrack  behind.     We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  on,  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep. 

This  is  nature  by  itself  But  the  higher  truth  of 
nature — the  positive  truth  on  which  its  place  in  re- 
ligion depends — has  been  expressed  in  poetry  if  pos- 
sible still  more  sublime,  because  in  it  God  is  present  in 
His  world,  and  all  creation  attests  His  presence. 
'*  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts :  all  the  earth 
contains  is  His  glory."  No  worship  is  complete  that 
has  not  in  it  an  amen  to  the  voice  of  the  seraphim. 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER. 

*'  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness  : 
and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over 
every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth." — Genesis  i. 
26. 

The  Bible  begins  with  the  story  of  creation,  and 
invites  us  to  think  of  the  religious  import  of  the  truth 
that  the  whole  universe  is  dependent  upon  God.  But 
its  main  interest  is  not  in  creation,  or  as  we  now  say  in 
nature,  but  in  man ;  and  in  this  ancient  narrative  man 
has  a  place  apart.  His  creation  is  no  doubt  part  of 
the  creation  of  all  things,  but  it  is  preceded  by  a 
Divine  deliberation,  it  is  carried  out  after  a  Divine 
pattern,  and  it  is  accompanied  by  a  great  charter  :  '*  Let 
them  have  dominion  over  all  the  earth". 

These  things  need  to  be  emphasized.  Within  the 
last  generation,  more  than  at  any  earlier  period,  our 
minds  have  been  trained  to  look  mainly  at  the  con- 
nexion between  man  and  nature.  Man,  it  cannot  be 
denied,  is  a  natural  being,  a  part  of  the  physical 
universe,  like  everything  else  that  we  see.  He  has  a 
physical  ancestry,  originates  in  physical  processes,  is 
subject  to  the  same  conditions  of  life  as  the  other 
animals,  needs  the  same  air,  light,  heat,  food,  and  so 
forth,  is  subject  to  the  same  diseases,  and  succumbs 
at  last  to  the  same  death.     His  being  is  part  of  the  one 

(88) 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  89 

vast  web  of  life  which  is  perpetually  being  woven  and 
unravelled  in  the  world.  This  is  truth,  and  cannot  be 
put  too  strongly.  It  is  what  the  Bible  means  when  it 
says,  He  also  is  flesh. 

But  is  it  the  whole  truth  ?  Is  man  merely  a  piece 
of  nature  ?  is  he  merely  the  last  term  in  an  ascending 
series  of  animals,  the  consummation  or  crown  of  the 
natural  process  ?  No  one  who  has  really  reflected 
would  answer  in  the  affirmative.  It  is  true  that  all 
forms  of  life  are  akin  ;  it  is  true  that  we  are  blood  rela- 
tions of  everything  that  breathes  :  it  is  true  that  there 
is  only  one  chemistry,  one  physiology,  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  life  in  every  degree  from  the  amphioxus 
up  to  man.  But  if  this  is  a  humbling  and  perhaps  a 
depressing  truth — if  it  casts  the  shadow  of  physical 
necessity  over  what  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  as 
the  realm  of  human  freedom — let  us  consider  on  the 
other  hand  that  the  only  chemist,  the  only  physiologist, 
the  only  interpreter  of  nature  in  her  one  and  pervasive 
life  is  man.  Man  is  not  only  a  part  of  nature,  he  con- 
fronts nature  as  nothing  which  is  only  a  part  of  it 
could  do.  He  confronts  it  and  includes  it  at  the  same 
time.  He  is  not  only  the  crown  of  nature,  he  is  in  some 
sense  its  king.  It  is  his  territory,  his  inheritance.  He 
confronts  it  with  a  sovereign  self-consciousness.  He  is 
not  only,  like  other  living  creatures,  a  subject  which 
science  studies ;  unlike  other  living  creatures  he  is  the 
creator  of  the  very  science  by  which  this  study  is 
carried  on.  Though  he  lives  in  time,  he  is  not  time's 
fool ;  a  relation  to  God,  to  eternal  truth,  to  inviolable 
duty,  to  a  free  calling  in  which  nature  is  subject  to  him, 
is  just  as  much  a  part  or  characteristic  of  his  being  as 
his  kinship  to  nature  as  a  whole,  and  the  rooting  of 


90  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

his  life  in  the  physical  system  around  him.  This  is 
not  only  recognized  in  every  sound  philosophy :  it 
stands  on  the  first  page  of  the  Bible  as  part  of  its  con- 
ception of  the  true  constitution  of  man.  It  is  what  the 
Bible  means  when  it  tells  us  that  God  created  man  in 
His  own  iniage^  and  gave  him  dominion  over  all  the 
earth. 

If  we  meant  to  study  the  image  of  God  in  man,  the 
best  plan  would  probably  be  to  go  directly  to  the  New 
Testament  The  beginnings  of  human  life  and  history 
lie  beyond  our  reach,  and  all  that  anthropology  can 
do  for  us  seems  to  illustrate  rather  the  natural  than 
the  supernatural  in  man,  rather  his  relation  to  nature 
than  what  is  just  as  certain,  though  not  so  easily 
traced,  his  relation  to  God.  When  our  minds  are 
turned  to  this  last,  it  is  the  second  Adam,  not  the  first, 
to  whom  we  must  look.  It  is  He  alone — Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord — who  is  expressly  called  in  Scripture  **the 
image  of  the  invisible  God  ".  It  is  in  Him  we  see  the 
Divine  likeness  in  which — or,  as  some  people  would 
now  prefer  to  say,  for  which — we  were  made.  To  see 
Him,  and  especially  to  believe  in  Him,  evokes  those 
capacities  in  us  through  which  our  life  is  connected 
with  God,  and  so  enables  us  to  attain  the  ends  for 
which  we  are  created.  But  it  is  not  the  Divine  image 
in  particular  that  I  wish  to  speak  of,  but  the  Divine 
charter  which  was  given  to  our  race  along  with  it. 
This  is  expressed  here  in  the  words,  **  Have  dominion 
.  .  .  over  all  the  earth  ".  It  is  not  a  peculiarity  of  the 
Old  Testament :  on  the  contrary,  it  is  precisely  the 
same  thought  which  we  find  in  the  New,  where  St. 
Paul  writes  to  the  Corinthians,  "  All  things  are  yours 
.  .  .  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  things  present  or 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  91 

things  to  come  ;  all  are  yours  ".  The  sovereign  self- 
consciousness  of  man  in  presence  of  the  world  is  part 
of  the  true  religion  from  beginning  to  end,  and  it  is 
well  worth  while,  therefore,  to  consider  the  ways  in 
which  it  is  exercised. 

Speaking  generally,  it  may  be  said  that  this  sovereign 
self-consciousness  of  man,  resting  as  it  does  on  his 
relation  to  God,  binds  him  to  exercise  his  sovereignty 
over  nature  in  accordance  with  what  he  knows  to  be 
God's  will.  Man  is  not  an  absolute  or  irresponsible 
king ;  his  sovereignty  is  delegated  to  him  by  God  ;  it 
belongs  to  him  only  as  he  is  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
and  it  must  be  exercised  within  the  limits  of  the  Divine 
charter.  Where  God  is  unknown  or  forgotten — where 
the  true  religion  is  unknown  or  debased — man  may 
live  in  childish  terror  of  the  world  and  its  forces,  or 
he  may  use  and  abuse  them  in  ways  which  are  merely 
degrading  to  himself;  but  in  his  true  sovereignty  he 
is  at  once  free,  and  under  responsibility  to  God. 
Creation  is  the  realm  in  which  his  sovereignty  is  exer- 
cised, and  he  exercises  it  in  a  way  which  reveals  at 
once  his  kinship  to  the  Creator  and  his  sense  of 
responsibility  to  Him.  What,  then,  let  us  ask  in  more 
detail,  are  the  ways  in  which  man  avails  himself  of  the 
charter  which  God  has  written  on  his  nature,  ''Have 
dominion  "  ? 

I.  Originally,  no  doubt,  man  exercised  his  sove- 
reignty in  the  world  instinctively,  that  is,  without  con- 
scious reflection.  There  is  something  in  him  always 
which  impels  him  to  regard  the  earth  as  his  in  an 
exclusive  sense.  He  finds  it  preoccupied  by  other 
creatures,  but  that  does  not  embarrass  him.  He 
believes  it  is  meant  for  his  abode,  and  that  his  claim 


92  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

to  it  is  superior  to  every  other.  He  feels  quite  justified 
in  exterminating  some  animals,  in  domesticating  others 
to  do  him  service,  and  in  using  others  again  to  support 
his  life.  No  doubt  in  this  general  exercise  of  sove- 
reignty man  may  have  erred,  just  as  those  smaller 
sovereigns  have  erred  whose  rule  did  not  extend  to 
"  all  the  earth,"  but  only  to  one  little  corner  of  human 
society  ;  no  doubt  he  may  have  been,  and  may  still  be, 
selfish,  tyrannical,  and  cruel.  To  say  that  all  things, 
and  in  particular  all  forms  of  life,  are  lower  than 
humanity,  and  therefore  have  value  only  in  relation  to 
it,  is  not  to  say  that  human  beings  can  lawfully  use 
other  forms  of  life  in  any  way  they  please.  It  is  only 
as  made  in  God's  image  that  man  is  entitled  to  exercise 
sovereignty,  and  he  dare  not  exercise  it  in  a  way  that 
debases  or  denies  that  image  itself  A  higher  race  of 
men  is  not  exercising  its  dominion  legitimately — it  is 
not  exercising  it  in  a  way  congruous  to  the  charter  and 
to  the  Divine  relationship  of  man  on  which  it  is  based 
— when  it  virtually  denies  the  image  of  God  in  a  lower, 
and  treats  its  members  as  if  they  were  brutes  or  tools. 
It  is  not  exercising  its  dominion  legitimately  when  it 
brutalizes  its  own  nature — in  other  words,  defaces  and 
insults  the  Divine  image  in  man — by  torturing  dumb 
creatures  for  its  recreation,  as  in  bull  fighting,  pigeon 
shooting,  and  many  so-called  sports.  Cruelty  to 
animals  is  not  justified  by  the  Divine  charter  which 
says,  **  Have  dominion  ".  Even  the  infliction  of  pain  in 
the  pursuit  of  knowledge  which  has  the  assumed  good 
of  humanity  in  view  has  moral  dangers  which  it  is  not 
safe  to  ignore.  If  vivisection  makes  a  man  inhuman, 
it  is  for  that  man  an  illegitimate  exercise  of  man's 
dominion  over  the  creatures.     The  creatures  belong 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  93 

to  God,  and  they  are  ours  only  as  we  are  His.  We 
can  do  as  we  will  with  them,  and  with  the  whole  world 
around  us,  so  long  as  our  doings  contribute  to  the 
building  up  in  the  world  the  kingdom  of  Him  whose 
right  it  is  to  reign.  But  arrogance,  heartlessness,  in- 
humanity, arbitrary  self-will,  are  no  part  of  the  Divine 
charter  God  has  granted  to  our  race.  We  can  have 
no  "  dominion  over  all  the  earth  "  except  as  partaking 
in  and  contributing  to  His  sovereignty,  who  is  just  and 
good  in  all  His  ways. 

2.  It  marks  a  more  advanced  stage  in  human  pro- 
gress when  man  begins  to  exercise  his  delegated 
sovereignty  over  all  the  earth  through  science.  Science 
is  the  methodical  interpretation  of  nature,  the  mapping 
out  of  our  great  inheritance,  the  cataloguing  of  its 
resources  and  of  our  treasures  in  them.  Nothing  more 
clearly  reveals  the  truth  that  man  is  made,  and  is  con- 
tinually being  more  completely  made,  in  the  Divine 
image.  Kepler  spoke  of  the  aim  of  all  his  scientific 
efforts  as  the  thinking  of  God's  thoughts  after  Him. 
To  think  God's  thoughts  after  Him  is  to  that  extent  to 
be  initiated  into  His  secrets  and  to  obtain  command  of 
His  resources.  He  who  learns  to  think  God's  thoughts 
learns  at  the  same  time,  in  a  corresponding  measure, 
to  wield  God's  power.  And  so  far  at  least  as  nature 
is  concerned,  there  seems  to  be  no  limit  set  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  we  may  do  either.  In  this  sense  we 
may  go  on  extending  our  dominion  over  the  creatures 
indefinitely. 

For  the  last  three  hundred  years,  this  has  been  in- 
creasingly the  task  of  man.  The  proportion  of  human 
intelligence  devoted  to  the  enlargement  of  science 
and  to  its  practical  apphcations  becomes  continually 


94  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

greater;  more  minds  are  educated  in  this  way,  and 
more  intelligence  is  given  to  this  pursuit,  than  at  any 
earlier  period.      The  sciences   of  nature  have  been 
created — astronomy,  physics,  chemistry,  biology.     The 
forces  in  nature  have  been  studied,  mastered,  and  ap- 
plied.    Dominion  over  all  the  earth  in  a  true  and  lofty 
sense  is  easily  and  widely  exercised.     The  astronomer 
enables  man  to  make  the  trackless  seas  his  pathway  to 
distant  lands.     The  physicist  masters  the  laws  of  heat, 
and  the  steam  engine  toils  for  us  in  every  factory,  on 
every  railroad,  on  almost  every  ship  in  the  world.    The 
laws  of  light  are  mastered,  and  even  a  child  can  play 
with  a  camera,  and  make  the  sun  take  pictures  for  him. 
The  laws  of  electricity  are  mastered,  and  not  to  speak 
of  light  and  power,  we  send  messages  by  the  telegraph, 
or  speak  through  the  telephone,  as  though  space  had 
ceased  to  be.     The  human  mind  has  never  done  any- 
thing over  which  it  has  been  so  elated.     No  triumph 
has  ever  been  attended  by  such  an  incessant  blowing  of 
trumpets.     And  in  a  way  this  is  quite  legitimate,  for  all 
this  interpretation  and  exploitation  of  nature  is  the  ful- 
filment of  the  great  charter — Have  dominion.      But 
more  and  more  with  the  years  there  has  become  audible 
behind  this  song  of  triumph  a  strain  of  misgiving,  and 
sometimes  even  of  disappointment  and  despair.     It  is 
as  though  man  were  burdened  by  his  very  achieve- 
ments— wearied,  as  the  prophet  says,  with  the  great- 
ness of  his  way.      He  has  captured  nature,  but  captive 
nature  has  in  turn  made  him  her  captive.      His  train 
can  run  sixty  miles  an  hour,  and  no  matter  how  the 
pace  shakes  his  nerves,  he  dare  not  travel  more  slowly. 
He  can  speak  across  the  four  hundred   miles  which 
separate  Glasgow  from  London,  and  he  must  do  busi- 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  95 

ness  at  that  tension,  or  make  room  for  those  who  can. 
Nature  has  revenged  herself  by  getting  dominion  over 
him.  What  shelter  to  grow  ripe  has  he,  what  leisure 
to  grow  wise  ?  It  is  as  though  we  could  do  everything 
with  our  inheritance  except  have  dominion  over  it. 

Disconcerting  as  this  may  be  for  the  moment,  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  be  discouraged  by  it.  It 
is  only  the  reappearance  in  our  own  time  of  an  experi- 
ence which  has  haunted  the  whole  history  of  advanc- 
ing knowledge.  He  that  increaseth  knowledge,  the 
preacher  tells  us,  increaseth  sorrow;  to  master  the 
laws  and  the  resources  of  nature  is  not  (in  this  mood) 
a  high  calling  with  which  God  has  called  us,  a  noble 
charter  which  He  has  bestowed  upon  our  kind  ;  it  is  a 
sore  travail  which  God  has  given  to  the  sons  of  men 
to  be  exercised  therewith.  Always,  too,  from  time  to 
time  in  the  history  of  science  there  have  been  on  this 
ground  what  may  be  called  Puritanic  reactions  against 
it — protests,  which  their  authors  no  doubt  regarded  as 
spiritual,  against  man's  intoxication  with  it,  against  the 
strain  which  its  practical  applications  put  upon  human 
nerves,  against  the  luxuries  and  conveniences  which 
it  multiplies  and  makes  necessary,  so  that  the  hardy 
simplicity  and  composure  of  a  manlier  age  are  lost. 
Even  the  Bible,  in  which  all  human  experiences  are 
reflected,  reflects  this  one  also.  Genesis  itself  shows 
us  that  Babylon  is  only  built  at  the  cost  of  Eden,  and 
Jeremiah  holds  up  the  impracticable  virtue  of  the 
Rechabites,  which  would  have  extinguished  not  only 
drunkenness  but  civilization,  as  a  pattern  to  his  de- 
generate contemporaries.  The  true  inference  to  draw 
from  such  moral  phenomena  is  that  science  and  its 
applications   are   not   the   ultimate   fulfilment   of  the 


96  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

charge — Have  dominion.  In  one  sense  they  do  fulfil 
it,  but  in  another  they  only  set  it  for  us  over  again. 
They  reveal  more  clearly  the  world  in  which  man's 
sovereignty  is  to  be  exercised  :  he  sees  his  task  (or  his 
privilege)  on  a  higher  plane,  in  a  more  exacting  form. 
It  was  easier — or  we  think  it  was — to  have  the  sense 
of  sovereignty  in  a  simple,  narrow,  leisurely  world  ;  it 
is  hard  to  achieve  and  hard  to  retain  it  in  that  compli- 
cated and  swiftly  moving  world  in  which  science  com- 
pels us  to  live.  But  this  only  means  that  in  such  a 
world  as  ours  it  is  peculiarly  necessary  to  hear  God 
say,  Have  dominion,  as  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
Remember  your  relation  to  Me.  Remember  the  super- 
natural likeness  in  which  you  are  made,  and  in  the 
sense  of  your  connexion  with  God,  whose  all  these 
things  are  and  whom  they  all  serve,  do  not  be  over- 
borne by  them ;  be  their  sovereign,  not  their  slave. 
Strengthen  yourself  in  God,  and  reflect  that  it  is  only 
by  making  the  task  harder  and  harder  that  it  is  pos- 
sible for  God  to  give  you  a  larger  and  larger  posses- 
sion of  the  image  in  which  you  were  made. 

3.  Instinctive  impulse,  and  science  with  its  wonderful 
apphcations,  are  modes  in  which  man  exercises  a 
dominion  over  nature,  but  his  sovereignty  is  even  more 
wonderfully  demonstrated  in  art  In  art,  as  contrasted 
with  applied  science,  there  is  always  something  crea- 
tive. It  is  the  nearest  approach  which  man  can  make 
to  working  as  God  works.  Man's  dominion  over  the 
world,  his  power  to  appropriate  and  to  use  for  his  own 
ends  all  the  glory  and  beauty  of  nature,  all  the  joy  and 
sorrow,  all  the  splendour  and  the  mystery  of  life,  is 
nowhere  more  signally  displayed  than  in  the  great 
works  of  painters  and  sculptors,  musicians  and  poets. 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  97 

They  demonstrate  the  freedom  and  sovereignty  of  the 
spiritual  being  in  a  wa}^  hardly  less  than  Divine,  and 
they  help  all  who  can  appreciate  them  to  partake  in 
the  same  dominion.  We  are  lifted  above  the  world 
and  every  sort  of  bondage  to  the  necessities  with  which 
it  encompasses  us,  when  we  enter  into  the  genius  to 
which  nature  and  the  Hfe  of  man  are  but  the  raw 
material  or  the  unconscious  prompting  for  works  of 
enduring  truth  and  beauty.  The  gifted  minds  to  whom 
the  rest  of  us  are  debtors  in  this  region  show  us  in  one 
conspicuous  way  how  the  Divine  charter  is  made  good 
— Have  dominion  over  all  the  earth. 

But  if  this  cannot  be  easily  denied,  it  can  just  as 
little  be  put  forward  as  the  whole  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem. How  many  men  of  genius  could  be  named  who 
were  so  far  from  having  this  universal  sovereignty 
that  they  were  not  even  masters  of  themselves  ? 
Genius  may  be  used  to  assert  and  display  man's 
dominion  over  the  world,  but  it  may  lie  neglected  and 
unused,  or  it  may  be  used  to  unworthy  ends.  It  is  a 
gift,  and  like  every  other  gift  it  needs  guidance.  It  is 
not  genius  which  is  made  in  the  Divine  image,  but 
man  ;  and  apart  from  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  God 
and  humanity,  genius  may  quite  well  be  prostituted 
and  wasted.  It  may  be  used  in  a  way  which  enslaves 
man  to  what  is  beneath  him  in  nature,  instead  of  help- 
ing him  to  realize  dominion  over  it ;  and  when  this 
happens,  the  power  it  exerts  in  degrading  is  as  great 
as  that  which  it  might  have  exerted  in  uplifting  and 
inspiring  man.  It  is  hardly  true  to  say  that  in  such 
cases  the  light  that  leads  astray  is  light  from  heaven. 
Genius  is  not  of  itself  a  light  from  heaven.  It  is  rather 
part  of  the  nature  over  which  man  is  to  have  dominion, 

7 


98  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

as  well  as  a  power  of  asserting  dominion  over  other 
parts ;  and  man,  in  virtue  of  his  nature  as  made  in  the 
Divine  image,  is  entitled  to  judge  all  natural  gifts,  even 
the  supreme  gifts  of  genius,  and  the  use  to  which  they 
are  put.  Genius  helps  us  to  attain  the  sovereignty  to 
which  we  are  called  only  when  he  who  is  endowed 
with  it  has  won  the  same  sovereignty  over  his  genius 
itself — in  other  words,  when  he  uses  it  in  the  sense  of 
responsibility  to  God,  and  in  view  of  man's  chief  end. 
It  is  always  the  altar  which  sanctifies  the  gift.  What 
can  be  truly  said  at  last  is  that  when  gifts  of  genius 
are  laid  on  the  altar  of  God  they  help  us,  as  no  other 
powers  or  efforts  do,  to  attain  to  the  sovereignty  set 
before  us  in  our  creation. 

4.  In  conclusion,  the  sovereignty  which  was  bestowed 
on  man  at  the  beginning,  in  virtue  of  his  creation  in 
the  image  of  God,  is  only  exercised  effectively  as  that 
image  is  renewed  and  realized  in  us.  It  is  only  ex- 
ercised effectively  through  true  religion,  or  the  life  in 
God.  If  we  wish  to  see  it  in  its  normal  operation  we 
have  to  look  to  Jesus,  who  was  *'the  image  of  the  in- 
visible God,"  or  to  those  who  have  been  redeemed  by 
Him  and  are  fulfilling  the  Divine  calling  of  the  race  in 
His  strength.  Who  can  truly  say  that  the  great  charter 
— Have  dominion— has  been  made  good  to  him  ?  Who 
can  truly  say  that  it  is  being  made  good  ?  Only  the 
man  who  through  Christ  has  been  made  right  with 
God  to  the  very  depth  of  his  being,  and  who  has  the 
inward  assurance  that  henceforth  everything  in  God's 
world  is  his  ally.  It  is  he  who  has  the  consciousness 
of  superiority  to  all  outward  things,  and  who  knows 
that  all  that  befalls  him,  however  untoward  it  may 
seem,  must  contribute  to  his  hfe  toward  God-.     If  it  is 


THE  GREAT  CHARTER  99 

not  an  echo  of  this  text  which  we  find  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  Romans,  it  is  the  Christian  key  to  it.  "  We 
know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God."  **  I  am  persuaded,  that  neither  death, 
nor  hfe,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor 
things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 
All  things  are  ours  when  we  are  His.  This  is  the  form 
in  which  our  sovereignty  is  asserted  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

But  who  is  equal  to  such  utterances  as  these  ?  In 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  have  the  Divine  ideal 
for  man  ;  in  the  eighth  of  Romans  the  Divine  fulfilment 
of  it,  amid  all  the  trials  of  life,  by  the  way  of  redemp- 
tion. But  the  ordinary  life  we  live,  and  by  which  we 
are  apt  to  measure  reality,  is  too  little  in  contact  with 
either.  Often  we  feel  that  the  world  is  our  enemy, 
that  all  things  are  against  us,  and  that  they  are  too 
hard  for  us.  The  growing  sense  that  man  is  impli- 
cated in  nature  makes  it  harder  to  believe  in  his 
sovereignty  over  it.  Once  men  thought  of  the  world 
mainly  as  the  scenery  of  their  life,  the  stage  on  which 
the  moral  drama  was  transacted,  and  then  it  was  easy 
enough  to  feel  independent;  but  now  we  know  it 
is  not  only  scenery,  but  soil ;  the  roots  of  our  being 
are  interwoven  with  it,  and  we  do  not  know  how  to 
conceive  of  freedom,  not  to  speak  of  dominion.  In 
proportion,  too,  as  the  merely  physical  conditions  of 
existence  are  mastered,  the  moral  task  seems  to  become 
more  complicated.  Few  of  us  here  need  to  fear  cold 
or  hunger ;  to  that  extent  our  dominion  over  the  earth 
has  been  made  good.     But  the  organized  and  elaborate 


loo  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

system  of  life  through  which  this  has  been  secured 
has  a  new  power  of  its  own  to  bring  us  into  bondage, 
and  it  is  a  new  and  not  an  easier  task  to  live  a  free  and 
sovereign  life  in  it  in  the  image  of  God.     It  is  a  task 
we  can  only  fulfil  if  we  have  the  assurance  of  a  present 
love  of  God  reaching  deeper  into  life  than  its  most 
distressing  and  hopeless  conditions.     The  whole  mes- 
sage of  the   New  Testament  is  that  there  is  such  a 
love,  and  that  it  has  been  made  sure  to  us  in  Christ. 
The  one  thing  which  makes  the  world  impracticable 
to  us,  which  baffles  every  attempt  on  our  part  to  live 
a  free  and  sovereign  life  in  it,  is  sin ;  we  face  it  with 
an  evil  conscience  and  a  corrupt  nature,  and  all  things 
are  against  'us.     It  is  not  every  one  who  can  say, 
We  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God.     It  is  they  only  who  have  learned, 
as  St.  Paul  had,  that  in  Christ  a  love  of  God  has  come 
into  the  world  which  has  gone  to  the  very  depth  of 
our  need,  which  has  taken  on  itself  the  strain  of  the 
problem  our  sin  had  created,  which  has  given  us  a  new 
standing  ground  from  which  to  face  our  calling,  and 
has  made    us  more    than    conquerors.       Civilization, 
science,   and   art  do  not  themselves  estabhsh  man's 
dominion  in   the  world ;    they  rather  challenge  man 
again  and  again,  at  higher  and  higher  levels,  under 
more  and  more  exacting  conditions,  to  establish  his 
dominion  if  he  can.     And  he  can,  when  at  the  cross  of 
Christ,  where  the  love  of  God  bears  even  the  sin  of 
the  world,  he  takes  hold  of  that  last  and  deepest  reality 
which  subdues  all  things  to  itself.     His  sovereignty 
comes  back  to  him  when  he  is  united  to  Christ,  whom 
God  has  appointed  heir  of  all  things,  through  whom 
also  He  made  the  worlds. 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH 

"  And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  Apostles'  teaching  and  in  the 
fellowship,  in  the  breaking  of  the  bread,  and  the  prayers." — Acts 
II.  42. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  New  Testament 
exhibits  to  us  the  ideal  of  the  Church.  One  is  doc- 
trinal, and  is  illustrated  in  the  epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 
There  the  Church  is  set  forth  as  the  end  of  all  the  ways 
of  God — the  body  of  Christ  which  is  filled  with  his 
fullness — the  new  humanity  in  which  all  the  enmities 
and  divisions  of  the  old  are  transcended — the  glorious 
bride  of  Christ,  w^ithout  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such 
thing.  The  other  is  historical,  and  is  illustrated  in 
this  passage  of  Acts.  Here  we  see  the  Church,  as 
Luke  saw  it  in  his  mind's  eye,  in  the  days  of  its 
splendid  prime,  when  the  memory  of  Jesus  was  vivid 
and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  new.  Beginnings  may  not 
always  be  perfect,  but  there  is  always  something 
inspiring  about  them,  and  something  authoritative 
as  well.  To  a  Romanist,  the  doctrine  of  the  Church 
is  in  a  very  real  sense  the  only  doctrine  of  Christianity  ; 
if  he  is  right  about  this,  he  cannot  be  wrong  about 
anything  else.  Protestants  give  the  Church  a  very 
different  place  both  in  their  thoughts  and  their  faith ; 
but  as  we  all,  in  point  of  fact,  have  some  relation  to 
the  Church,  it  is  well  that  we  should  realize  its  signi- 
ficance in  the  New  Testament. 

Ooi) 


102  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

This  passage  presents  us  with  four  notes  of  the  true 
Church  as  they  impressed  an  early  disciple,  and  I  shall 
say  a  few  words  in  explanation  and  enforcement  of 
each. 

I.  They  continued  stedfastly  in  the  teaching  of  the 
Apostles — rather,  they  waited  assiduously  upon  their 
teaching.  Some  connexion  with  the  Apostles  is  neces- 
sary if  the  Church  is  to  be  true  to  its  ideal,  for  the 
Church  is  Christ's  Church,  and  the  Apostles  are  the 
ultimate  witnesses  to  Christ.  A  society  which  re- 
pudiated the  teaching  of  the  Apostles  would  not  be 
the  Christian  Church  nor  entitled  to  the  Christian  name. 
Sometimes  the  connexion  with  the  Apostles,  apart  from 
which  a  Church  cannot  be  Christian,  is  supposed  to  be 
secured  by  what  is  called  the  apostolic  succession  of 
the  ministry.  The  Apostles,  it  is  asserted,  ordained 
men  to  continue  their  office  in  the  Church,  and  they  in 
turn  ordained  others  in  an  unbroken  line  reaching  to 
our  own  time.  It  is  this  official  continuation  of  the 
ministry  on  which  the  apostolic  and  therefore  the 
Christian  character  of  the  Church  depends.  About 
this  there  are  two  things  to  be  said.  The  first  is, 
that  there  is  not  a  Christian  minister  in  the  world, 
from  the  Bishop  of  "Rome  up  or  down,  who  can  prove 
that  he  himself  stands  in  any  such  unbroken  succession. 
And  the  second  is,  that  even  if  it  could  be  proved,  it 
would  be  quite  irrelevant  as  a  mark  of  the  true  Church. 
Such  an  external,  legal,  formal  continuity,  even  if  it 
existed,  could  guarantee  nothing  spiritual,  and  it  is  on 
spiritual  consanguinity  with  the  Apostles  and  their 
testimony  to  Jesus  that  everything  depends.  A  his- 
torical succession,  could  it  be  really  traced,  would 
have  something  imposing  for  the  imagination  ;  it  would 
not  be  without  interest    for  the  intelligence  :    but  to 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH  103 

conscience  it  could  never  mean  anything  at  all.  The 
connexion  with  the  Apostles  which  marks  the  Church 
as  Christian  is  not  to  be  sought  in  any  external  con- 
tinuity of  church  officers,  but  in  fidelity  to  apostolic 
teaching.  Wherever  such  fidelity  is  found  we  have 
the  primary  note  of  the  apostolic  Christian  Church. 

What  then,  we  naturally  ask,  did  the  Apostles  teach  ? 
A  little  further  on  in  this  book  their  enemies  describe 
them  as  unlearned  and  ignorant  men ;  but  they  took 
knowledge  of  them,  we  are  told,  that  they  had  been^ 
with  Jesus.     This  gives  us  the  answer  to  our  question. 
They  had  been  with  Jesus ;  they  knew  Jesus  better^ 
than   anybody  else   did ;  they  never  wearied    telling 
about  Him,  and  the  Church  never  wearied  hearing. 
That  is  what  is  meant  by,  **  They  continued  stedfastly  in 
the  teaching  of  the  Apostles " ;   it  means  they  could 
never  hear  enough  about  Jesus.     Our  authorized  ver::_ 
sion  renders  the  words,  "  They  continued  stedfastly  in 
the  Apostles'  doctrine  " ;  but  that  is  both  too  narrow  in 
itself,  and  to  the  ordinary  reader  suggests  something 
false.     No  doubt  the  Apostles  had  doctrine  even  in  the 
current  sense :  they  had  facts  and  interpretations  of  facts 
which  constituted  their  Gospel,  and  apart  from  which 
they  could  not  have  borne  their  testimony  to  Jesus  at 
all.     St.   Paul  tells  us  what  these  were    at   the  very 
beginning — the  primary  truths  of  the  Gospel  in  which 
He  and  the  Twelve  had  alw^ays  been  at  one.     "  Christ  ^ 
died    for  our  sins   according   to  the   Scriptures — He 
was  buried — the  third  day  He  rose  from  the  dead  ac^ 
cording  to  the  Scriptures."     But  though  this  was  no 
doubt  accepted  by  all  the  disciples,  something  wider 
is  meant  here.     The  teaching  of  the  Apostles  would 
include  their  whole  testimony  to  Jesus,  and  we  have) 
every  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  truly  represented  in 


104  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke.     This  is 

the  primitive  deposit  of  the  apostoHc  testimony.     We 

must  remember  in  particular  that  it  contained  not  only 

doctrines  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  word,  but  the 

revelation  of  a   new    life  to   which    Christians  were 

called.     **  Go  and  make  disciples  of  all   nations  .  .  . 

teaching  them   to   observe  all  things   whatsoever  I  have 

commanded  your     Everything  that  is  covered  by  the 

name  of  Jesus,  the  whole  appeal  made  to  men  by  His 

words  and  life  and  death,  is  included  in  the  teaching 

of  the  Apostles  to  which  the  early  Church  was  devoted. 

/And  it  is  the  mark  of  the  true  Church  always  that  it 

(  remains  devoted  to  this  teaching,  and  can  never  hear 

1   too  much  of  the  life  and  death,  of  the  love  and  will,  of 

I  its  Lord. 

There  are  plenty  of  people,  of  course,  outside  the 
/Church  who  have  a  sincere  contempt  for  sermons- 
There  are  plenty  of  people  inside  who  would  like,  as 
they  put  it,  to  enlarge  the  field  of  interest,  and  to  hear 
the  minister  of  the  Church  on  all  sorts  of  literary,  econ- 
omical, or  political  questions.'  "t  There  are  even  people 
who  disparage  preaching  on^the  plea  of  devotion  :  we 
do  not  go  to  church  to  hear  sermons,  they  say,  but  to 
worship  God.^  The  mouths  of  all  these  people  would 
be  shut  in  a  church  waiting  assiduously  on  the  teaching 
of  the  Apostles,  always  eager  to  hear  more  about  Jesus. 
/"Preaching  is  much  more  likely  to  fail,  even  in  interest, 
V.from  want  of  concentration  than  from  want  of  range. 
There  are  plenty  of  people  to  talk  politics  and  litera- 
ture, and  not  too  many  to  bear  witness  to  Jesus  who 
will  yet  extend  His  sceptre  over  every  field.  If  the 
sermon  in  church  is  what  it  ought  to  be — if  it  is  not  an 
exhibition  of  the  preacher  but_of  Jesus — there  should 
be  nothing  in  it  even  conceivably  in  contrast  with  wor- 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH  105 

ship,  but  the  very  reverse.  What  can  be  more  truly 
described  as  worship  than  hearing  the  wbrd  of  God  as  \ 
it  ought  to  be  heard,  hearing  it  with  penitence,  with  j 
contrition,  with  faith,  with  self-consecration,  with 
vows  of  new  obedience?  If  this  is  not  worship  in 
spirit  and  in  truth,  what  is?  We  may  sorrowfully 
confess  that  in  all  our  churches  there  is  too  little  wor- 
ship, that  adoration  is  rare,  that  while  singing  is  en- 
joyed the  sacrifice  of  praise  is  hardly  conceived,  and 
the  ardour  and  concentration  of  prayer  strangely  un- 
familiar, but  we  will  not  mend  these  deficiencies  by 
thrusting  into  the  background  the  testimony  to  Jesus. 
Such  a  testimony  is  the  only  inspiration  to  worship  in 
the  Christian  sense  of  the  term,  and  it  is  the(primary 
mark  of  the  true  Church  that  it  gathers  round  this 
testimony  and  is  unreservedly  loyal  to  it.^ 

2.  The   second   mark   of  the    Church    in  its   early  1 
beauty  was  that  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  fel-  I 
lowship.     Fellowship  is  a  word  that  has  now  been 
practically  appropriated  to  religious  uses,  which  means, 
unhappily,  that  it  has  lost  any  distinct  significance  for 
the  ordmary  reader.     But  its  meaning  here  is  tolerably 
plain.  (Strictly  it  signifies  joint  participation,  or  mutual  1 
giving  and  receiving,  and  it  refers  to  the  peculiar  con-  i 
ditions  of  fife  in  that  early  society  as  they  are  described  ^ 
in  the  opening  chapters  of  Acts.     "They  were  to- 
gether";  ''they  had  all  things  common";  "no  one 
said  that  any  of  the  things  he  possessed  was  his  own  "  ; 
"  there  was  no  one  in  want  among  them  "  ;  "  distribu-j 
tion  was  made  to  every  one  according  as  he  had  need."  > 
The  Church  was  a  family  in  which  the  new  law  of  love 
was  actually  kept — so  the  historian  puts  it — even  in 
regard  to  the  outward  necessities  of  life.     This,  and 
not  something  intangible  or  merely  spiritual  is  in  his 


io6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

mind  when  he  says,  "  They  continued  stedfastly  in  the 
fellowship  ".  And  this,  we  must  not  forget,  is  a  note  of 
the  ideal  Church. 

We  need  not  be  astonished  that  it  has  been  criticized. 
Students    of  the   New   Testament    have    sometimes 
thought  that  Luke  both  exaggerated  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  about  riches  and  poverty — being  a  lover  of  vol- 
untary  poverty  himself — and  that  he  exaggerates  in 
these  passages  the  extent  to  which  community  of  goods 
existed  or  was   approved   in  the  early  Church.     So 
far  as  it  was  produced,  too,  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm, 
they  find  it  comparatively  easy  to  disparage  it.     It 
meant  no  great  sacrifice,  they  suggest,  in  a  community 
in  which  practically  every  one  was  poor — with  a  cli- 
mate in  which  the  body  could  be  satisfied  with  one 
garment,  and  with  one  meal  a  day — in  a  civilization  j 
which  was  not  dependent  like  ours  on  accumulation  of  j 
wealth — and  above  all,  in  a  world  which  might  at  any  \ 
moment  come  to  an  end.     Further,  it  was  a  failure. 
Even  the  presence  of  Jesus  could  not  secure  **  the  fellow- 
ship "  of  the  Twelve  from  the  inevitable  risks  :  Judas  \ 
the  treasurer  was  a  thief  and  pilfered  the  paltry  funds  ) 
of  the  society.     The  fellowship  of  the  primitive  Church 
was  responsible  for  Ananias  and   Sapphira.     It  was 
responsible  for  the  poverty  of  the  Jerusalem  Christiansj 
which  made  them  a  burden  on  the  Gentile  Churches 
in  Galatia  and  Asia,  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia.     The 
saints  sank  under  it  into   paupers,  and  as  Paul  dis- 
covered at  last,  into  ungrateful  paupers.     What  they 
ought  to  have  been  taught  was  that  independence  is  as 
much  a  part  of  the  Christian  ideal  as  charity,  and  that 
it  is  short-sighted  policy  which  forgets  this. 

In  speaking  of  **  the  fellowship  "  of  these  early  be- 
lievers as  a  mark  of  the  ideal  Church,  I  am  not  careful 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH  107 

to  answer  the  advocatus  diaboli  who  urges  such  argu- 
ments against  it.     The  problem  of  poverty  is  not  so 
simple — certainly  it  is  not  so  simple  with  us — nor  is  the 
solution  of  it  so  easy,  as  the  early  Christians  supposed. 
But  the  instinct  which  impelled  them  in  deahng  with 
it  was  genuinely  Christian,  and  apart  from  that  instinct 
we  shall  never  be  able  to  deal  with  it  at  all.     We  must 
not  disparage  on  any  ground  whatever  the  first  bona 
fide  attempt  to  make  human  brotherhood  real.     There \ 
is   no    true  Church  where  the  effort  to   do  this  has  ' 
ceased.     "Let  brotherly  love  continue."     "Love  the 
brotherhood."     "Be  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another 
in  brotherly  love."     "  Remember  the  poor."     The  more 
things  we  have  in  common,  material  as  well  as  spiritual, 
the  more  we  realize  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  Church.  ) 
Within  the  Church,  there  ought  not  to  be  such  a  thing 
as  neglected  and  unsuccoured  poverty,  and  so  far  as'I 
can  judge  there  is  not  much.     The  Church  does  nof^ 
neglect  its  poor  members,  and  perhaps  those  who  com- 
plain that  it   neglects  the  poor   in  general — that  is, 
neglects  to  help   them  in  their  poverty — forget  how 
difficult  it  is  to  help  those  who  refuse  to  have  any  rela- 
tion with  others  except  that  of  holding  out  their  hand^^ 
The  people  who  are  here  said  to  have  continued  sted- 
fastly  in  the  fellowship  were  all  alike  members  in  a 
society  where  personal  relations  of  every  kind  were 
intimate,  and  it  was  this  which  made  "  the  fellowship," 
such  as  it  was,  possible.     It  was  one  feature  in  a  society\ 
where,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  Jesus,  many  were 
willing  to  say.  All  thatjsrnine  is. yours;  but  it  cannot 
be  reproduced,  even  with  its  drawbacks,  in  a  society 
where  the  only  cry  is.  All  that  is  yours  js^mine.     T)oy 
not  let  us  forget  that  with  all  its  drawbacks  it  was  \ 
an  inspiration  of  love,  and  that  though  love  needs  wis-  ( 


io8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

dom  to  guide  it,  without  love — active,  sacrificing,  posi- 
tive love — there  is  no  Church  at  all. 

3.  The  next  note  of  the  Church  is  of  another  kind, 

yet  closely  connected  with   this.      "  They  continued 

stedfastly  in  the  breaking  of  the  bread."     To  break 

bread  means  in  the  Bible  to  eat,  or  to  take  food ;  but 

^  it  came  to  be  appropriated  very  early  to  the  sacred 

meal  in  which  Christians  declared  the  Lord's  death. 

It  is  synonymous,  for  all  practical  purposes,  with  the 

(Lord's  Supper;   and  it  is  another  mark  of  the  ideal 

r  Church,    as    Luke   apprehended    it,    that   the    Lord's 

V  Supper  has  a  central  place  in  its  worship. 

The  history  of  the  Supper,  or  perhaps  it  should  be 
said  of  the  sacraments  in  general,  is  the  most  heart- 
breaking and  discreditable  chapter  in  the  whole  story 
of  Christianity.  Those  who  call  themselves  Catholic 
Christians  no  doubt  give  the  sacraments  a  great  place 
in  their  religion.  But  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments, 
in  its  so-called  Catholic  form,  is  a  mere  defiance  to  the 
mind  of  man — a  mixture  of  religious  materialism,  of 
superstition,  of  magic,  of  impossible  metaphysics,  with 
no  indubitable  result  but  that  of  the  enslavement  of 
the  Church  to  the  priesthood.  It  is  not  wonderful 
that  in  repelling,  as  they  are  bound  to  repel,  a  system 
of  ideas  and  practices  which  is  not  only  thoroughly 
unchristian  but  thoroughly  irrational,  Protestants 
should  sometimes  have  been  tempted  to  lose  patience 
with  the  whole  subject  round  which  it  has  been  con- 
structed. Some  have  dispensed  with  sacraments ; 
some  have  proposed  to  suspend  them  for  a  generation 
or  two  till  the  superstition  which  has  grown  about 
them  has  died  down ;  and  many,  to  say  the  least,  are 
embarrassed.  Baptism  is  supported  by  sentimental 
as  much  as  by  Christian  convictions.     In  "  Catholic  " 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH  109 

churches  the  number  of  communicants  as  compared 
with  the  whole  number  of  church  people  is  very  small, 
and  among  Protestants  there  are  many  to  whom  the 
Communion  Sunday  is  rather  a  day  of  misgiving  than 
of  peculiar  joy.  The  popular  apprehension  of  the 
sacraments  has  shrunk,  in  fact,  in  many  cases,  to 
something  purely  negative.  The  ordinary  church 
member  does  not  believe  that  baptism  regenerates, 
and  he  does  not  believe  in  a  real  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  bread  and  wine.  It  would  be  renouncing  the 
very  faculties  God  has  given  him  to  believe  such 
things ;  it  would  be  renouncing  all  that  he  means  by 
faith  in  God  Himself.  And  however  he  may  be  em- 
barrassed by  the  sacraments,  he  finds  it  quite  impos- 
sible to  depart  from  this  position. 

But  surely  mere  negation  cannot  comprehend  the 
whole  truth.  Surely  Christ  did  ftet  ijistitute  ordin-  \ 
ances  of  any  kind  only  that  those  who  believe  in  Him 
might  confess  themselves  baffled  by  them.  If  we 
negate  one  thing,  it  must  be  to  affirm  another.  With 
the  negations  just  referred  to — that  is,  with  the  un- 
quahfied  rejection  of  what  claims  to  be  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  sacraments — I  find  myself  in  entire 
agreement.  I  do  not  and  cannot  believe  either  that 
Christ  is  in  the  water  of  baptism,  or  that  He  is  in  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  Supper.  But  I  am  quite  sure 
that  the  New  Testament  suggests  a  real  presence  and 
working  of  Christ  in  the  celebration  of  the  sacraments, 
when  they  are  celebrated  as  they  originally  were,  and 
were  always  intended  to  be,  in  penitence  and  faith.)^ 
It  is  not  a  presence  in  the  elements,  but  a  presence  in 
the  sense  of  the  elements,  and  to  the  intent  signified 
by  them.  It  is  not  a  presence  which  is  explained  by 
transubstantiation  or  by  consubstantiation ;  both  these 


no  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

theories  are  meaningless  answers  to  meaningless 
questions.  It  is  not  a  presence  before  which  we  must 
simply  stand  with  minds  paralysed,  as  if  mental 
paralysis  were  identical  with  adoration,  or  even  with 
the  sense  of  the  mysterious.  What  the  New  Testa- 
ment suggests,  and  what  experience  confirms,  is  that 
when  baptism  is  celebrated  in  penitence  and  faith 
Christ  is  present,  not  in  the  water,  but  in  the  sense 
/signified  by  it — that  is,  in  the  power  of  His  spirit  to 
V  wash  our  sinful  nature  and  to  renew  it  to  hfe  in  God  ; 
and  that  when  the  Supper  is  celebrated  He  is  again 
present,  really  present,  not  indeed  in  the  sacramental 
elements,  but  in  the  sense  of  them ;  that  is.  He  is 
present  as  the  Lord  whose  body  was  broken  and  His 
blood  shed  for  men,  present  in  the  power  of  His 
atonement,  present  to  be  the  meat  and  drink  of  the 
soul.  If  any  one  says  that  this  reduces  the  elements 
to  mere  symbols,  I  entirely  agree ;  they  can  never  be 
anything  else.  But  they  are  Christ's  pledge  of  Hisl 
real  presence  in  the  sense  of  the  symbols,  and  it  is(l 
this  which  gives  the  sacraments  their  place  of  honourj 
in  the  Church.  They  are  not  explanations,  or  theories, 
but  facts ;  they  remind  us  that  faith  rests  not  on  any 
doctrine  or  wisdom  of  men,  but  on  the.  presence  and 
the  action  of  a  redeeming  God.  When  the  Com- 
munion Sabbath  comes,  then,  let  us  celebrate  the 
Supper  not  with  superstition  which  would  fain  be 
reverent,  and  not  with  embarrassment  which  would 
fain  be  rid  of  something  so  perplexing  in  a  spiritual 
faith,  but  with  solemn,  joyous,  grateful  appropriation 
of  the  Lord  who  is  present  with  us,  and  who  still 
gives  Himself  to  us  in  the  virtue  of  that  sacrifice  in 
which  He  once  gave  Himself  for  us.  There  is  no 
true  Church  in  which  the  soul  is  not  nourished  on  a 


THE  IDEAL  CHURCH  in 

present  Christ,  and  that  Christ  the  very  one  whose  \ 
body  was  broken  and  whose  blood  was  shed  for  us.  I 
This  is  what  the  Sacrament  declares.) 

4.  Finally,  the  ideal  Church  of  early  days  had  this 
mark  :  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  prayers.  The 
expression  implies  public  and  stated  prayers  :  they  had  | 
such  in  the  temple,  and  the  custom  was  born  again 
in  the  Church.  Prayer  became  a  new  thing  when  it 
became  prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  prayer  prompted 
by  the  contemplation  of  Jesus  and  by  faith  in  Him.) 
On  the  one  hand,  Jesus  was  an  inspiration  to  prayer : 
men  could  ask  God  for  all  they  saw  in  Him — for  part 
in  His  purity.  His  obedience.  His  faith,  His  patience.  His 
victory.  On  the  other  hand,  Jesus  was  a  hmit  to 
prayer  :  men  could  not  ask,  as  children  of  God,  exemp- 
tion from  experiences  which  He  was  not  spared  ;  they 
could  not  ask  to  have  no  poverty,  no  misunderstanding, 
no  weariness,  no  cross.  They  could  only  present  in 
Jesus'  name  prayers  which  He  would  present  in  their 
name ;  they  could  ask  everything  to  which  He  would 
say.  Amen,  but  nothing  else.  It  is  a  mark  of  the  true 
Church  to  continue  stedfastly  in  such  prayers,  to  know 
that  its  life  must  be  fed  from  heavenly  springs,  and  to 
cherish  its  communications  with  God.  Dr.  Chalmers  A 
says  that  the  reason  why  ministers  fail  in  their  work,  I 
when  they  do  fail,  is  not  that  they  do  not  preach,  or  j 
visit,  or  study,  but  that  they  do  not  pray.  They  go  j 
to  do  by  themselves  alone  what  no  man  can  do  unless 
God  is  with  him.  Every  minister  who  knows  any- 
thing knows  that  this  witness  is  true.  But  it  is  true 
of  congregations  and  of  individual  Christians  exactly 
as  it  is  of  ministers.  The  life  to  which  the  Church  is 
called  in  Christ  is  a  life  which  it  cannot  live  alone.  It 
can   only  address   itself  to   it   as   it   is   uplifted   and 


112  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

strengthened  by  contact  with  God.  Yet  who  could 
tell  whether  our  inability  to  pray,  or  our  unwillingness, 
is  greater,  an  inability  and  unwillingness  all  the  more 
astonishing  when  we  consider  how  much  we  need  and 
how  much  God  in  Christ  has  to  give.  How  many  of 
us  hold  on  so  earnestly  to  the  sense  of  the  prayers  in 
church  that  we  can  even  add  a  sympathetic  Amen  ? 
Is  there  any  note  of  the  ideal  Church  in  which  more  of 
our  Churches  would  be  found  wanting  than  this — they 
continued  stedfastly  in  the  prayers  ? 

Luke  tells  us  some  of  the  consequences  which  at- 
tended the  possession  of  these  striking  notes,  and  it  is 
worth  while  to  mention  them  in  closing.  One  was 
fear :  fear  fell  upon  every  soul.  This  is  Luke's  token 
of  the  presence  of  the  supernatural.  A  church  in 
which  men  are  not  awed  by  the  unquestionable  pres- 
ence of  God  will  never  be  a  power  in  the  world. 
Another  was^oy  .*  they  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness. 
There  are  family  meals  spoiled  by  low  spirits,  bad 
temper,  sullenness ;  and  nothing  will  drive  these 
miseries  away  but  a  part  in  Christ  and  in  the  new  life 
of  His  Church.  This  will  brighten  the  very  meals  we 
eat,  and  there  are  unhappy  homes  that  will  never  be 
made  happy  by  anything  else.  The  last  is  increase : 
the  Lord  added  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  should  be 
saved.  Only  the  Lord  can  do  it;  and  in  a  Church  de- 
voted to  the  testimony  of  the  Apostles,  to  brotherly 
love,  to  adoring  worship  in  which  it  appropriates  the 
present  Redeemer,  and  to  fervent  prayer,  we  have  the 
conditions  in  which  His  power  works.  Let  us  pray  for 
these  things,  and  that  God  may  make  us,  more  than  we 
have  ever  been,  representative  of  that  early  Church, 
His  sanctuary  and  His  witnesses  in  a  world  which  needs 
the  Gospel  as  much  as  ever. 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION. 

"  Beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints."— Romans  i.  7. 

This  is  Paul's  description  of  the  Church  at  Rome,  the 
address  upon  his  letter.  The  address  upon  a  letter 
naturally  consists  of  something  which  will  guide  the 
bearer  to  those  for  whom  it  is  meant ;  it  gives  their 
names,  or  their  business,  or  the  place  at  which  they 
live.  Probably  the  bearer  of  this  letter  to  Rome  would 
have  to  seek  out  its  recipients  in  the  Jewish  quarter; 
for  though  the  Church  was  mainly  Gentile,  like  every 
primitive  Church  it  originated  among  the  Jews,  and 
only  by  degrees  became  quite  independent  of  them. 
The  Jewish  quarter  was  poor  and  squalid,  and  even 
among  its  poor  and  squalid  inhabitants  the  Christians 
held  an  inconspicuous  place.  When  Paul  came  to 
Rome  himself,  a  few  years  later,  the  representatives 
of  his  people  either  knew  nothing  or  affected  to  know 
nothing  of  the  new  sect  except  that  it  was  everywhere 
spoken  against.  But  to  Paul  its  external  circumstances 
and  its  repute  in  the  world  were  nothing;  he  saw  not 
the  outward  appearance  but  the  reality  :  to  him  it 
consisted  of  persons  who  could  be  addressed  in  this 
wonderful  style,  "  Beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints  ". 
Beloved  of  God— what  a  rock  to  lean  upon  !  Called 
to  be  saints — what  a  height  to  aspire  to  ! 

It  is  chiefly  about  the  second  I   wish  to  speak  at 
present— our  calling  to  be  saints.       It  is  necessary  to 

(113)  S 


114  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

notice  that  it  is  the  second,  and  that  it  depends  upon 
the  first.  It  is  as  the  objects  and  possessors  of  God's 
love  that  we  are  called  with  so  high  a  calling.  If  we 
stood  alone  and  unsupported  in  the  world  we  should 
not  dare  to  lift  our  eyes  or  our  hearts  so  high.  Many 
of  us  never  think  of  it  because  we  have  not  taken  to 
ourselves  that  on  which  it  depends.  But  the  Gospel 
has  come  to  us,  and  the  very  meaning  of  the  Gospel  is 
that  we  are  not  alone  in  the  world.  God  is  here, 
Christ  is  here,  the  Atonement  is  here,  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  here,  and  they  are  all  here  for  us.  They 
are  all  here,  bringing  into  our  hearts  the  assurance  of 
the  redeeming  love  of  God  ;  and  as  that  love,  incredible 
at  first,  becomes  real  and  ever  more  real  to  our 
wondering  spirits,  a  new  world  rises  before  our  eyes 
in  its  marvellous  light.  A  day  begins  to  dawn  for  us 
that  we  had  never  hoped  for.  Out  of  the  darkness, 
confusion,  weakness,  and  despair  that  overlay  our  life, 
something  begins  to  shine  clear,  steady,  hopeful,  in- 
spiring— something  which  is  as  incredible  at  first  as 
the  love  of  God,  yet  which  may  fill  us  at  last  with  as 
deep  and  grateful  a  joy — our  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus. 
This  is  what  the  love  of  God  makes  possible  for  us 
and  puts  within  our  reach.  Those  who  know  that 
they  are  God's  beloved  know  also  that  in  consequence 
of  being  so  they  are  called  to  be  saints.  To  be  saints 
is  not  now  a  dream  or  a  madness;  with  the  love  of 
God  beneath  us  it  is  our  calling.  In  other  words, 
it  is  at  once  a  clear  duty,  and  a  sure  and  glorious 
hope. 

The  text  has  only  two  words  in  it — called  and  saints 
— and  to  get  into  the  heart  of  it  we  must  explore  them 
both.     It  is  best  to  begin  with  the  second,  so  that  we 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  115 

have  two  main  questions  to  answer.  First,  What  is 
meant  by  saints  ?  Second,  What  is  meant  further 
when  saints  are  regarded  as  such  in  virtue  of  a  call^ 
or  as  saints  by  vocation  ? 

I.  What  is  meant  by  saints?  It  is  easy  to  answer 
the  question  formally.  Saints  means  holy  people, 
and  in  Scripture  this  means  people  belonging  to  God. 
When  Paul  speaks  of  Christians  as  called  to  be  saints, 
he  means  that  they  are  called  to  be  His.  The  negative 
side  of  the  idea  is,  "  Ye  are  not  your  own  " ;  the  positive 
side  of  it  is,  "You  are  God's,  you  are  His  people.  His 
representatives  in  the  world  ".  The  oldest  and  perhaps 
the  profoundest  way  in  which  religion  is  conceived  in 
the  Bible  is  as  a  covenant  between  God  and  man. 
The  covenant  has  to  be  made.  It  has  to  be  instituted 
by  God,  and  entered  into  by  man.  Before  it  is  made, 
God  and  man,  so  to  speak,  stand  apart ;  God  is  there 
and  man  is  here,  and  there  is  a  sense  in  which  both 
are  frustrated.  God  is  excluded  from  the  life  of  the 
world,  and  man  knows  that  the  life  he  lives  in  himself 
— the  natural  secular  life — is  not  eternal  or  Divine,  a 
life  which  is  life  indeed.  But  when  God  draws  near 
to  us  in  His  redeeming  love,  and  enters  into  covenant 
with  us  in  Christ,  there  is  a  real  union  of  the  human  and 
the  Divine  ;  God  fulfils  Himself  in  the  world  through 
us,  and  we  in  our  mortal  life,  with  all  its  imperfections 
and  failures,  represent  not  our  own  cause  or  interest 
in  the  world  but  His.  In  the  great  city  to  which  this 
letter  was  sent  there  were  men  to  be  found  represent- 
ing the  most  diverse  interests,  pleasure,  pride,  business, 
literature,  art,  science,  law,  government;  but  amidst 
its  thronging  myriads  the  Apostle's  heart  was  pledged 
to   the   little   company   which    represented,   however 


ii6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

unworthily,  the  cause  and  interest  of  God  the  Re- 
deemer. It  is  they  who  are  in  his  mind  when  he  says, 
"called  to  be  saints  ". 

We  should  not  pass  this  point  without  saying: 
**  Behold,  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  be- 
stowed upon  us  ".  Is  it  not  wonderful,  when  we  think 
of  what  we  have  been,  that  God  should  call  us  to  be 
His  ?  to  live  in  union  and  communion  with  Him,  and 
to  stand  for  Him  in  the  world  ?  Is  it  not  wonderful 
that  in  His  condescension  He  should  so  trust  and 
honour  us? 

If  we  ask  how  we  are  to  aim  at  carrying  out  our 
calling  to  be  God's  people,  it  is  part  of  its  very  greatness 
that  there  is  no  short  and  easy  answer.  Of  course  we 
can  say  that  God's  people  must  be  a  distinct  people  in 
the  world ;  in  some  way  or  other  they  must  be  re- 
cognizedly  and  even  separately  His.  But  if  we  ask  in 
what  way,  we  find  that  any  definite  answer  invariably 
breaks  down  at  some  point.  In  the  course  of  Christian 
history  there  have  been  two  great  and  typical  attempts 
made  to  determine  the  kind  of  separateness  which 
belongs  or  ought  to  belong  to  the  saints  as  the  people 
of  God.  The  first  is  the  Roman  Catholic,  which  may 
be  said  to  proscribe  the  world  as  a  whole,  to  excom- 
municate nature  and  society,  and  to  renounce,  as 
inconsistent  with  the  calling  of  the  saint,  the  common 
relations  and  duties  of  life.  Only  a  person  who  goes 
out  of  the  world  altogether  and  who  lives  in  a  hermitage 
or  a  monastery,  renouncing  property,  family  ties,  and 
individual  will,  is  a  "religious,"  and  may  become  a 
"saint".  On  this  view  the  saints  are  only  a  class  of 
Christians,  a  very  small  class,  to  whose  calling  the 
others  are  sacrificed ;  for  the  others  must  be  more  in 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  117 

the  world  than  their  own  needs  would  require  in  order 
to  maintain  the  saints  as  well  as  themselves.  This 
conception  was  certainly  not  the  one  in  Paul's  mind. 
He  did  not  think  of  some  Christians  as  called  to  be 
saints,  and  of  others — of  the  great  mass,  indeed — as 
condemned  to  be  content  with  some  lower  life ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  writes,  ''  to  ail  that  are  in  Rome,  beloved 
of  God,  called  to  be  saints " ;  to  him  a  saint  and  a 
Christian  are  the  same  thing.  Every  person  whom 
the  love  of  God  touches  is  called  to  be  His  and  com- 
pletely His ;  and  a  separation  from  the  world  which  is 
not  in  its  full  extent  possible  for  every  Christian  is  not 
that  on  which  our  calling  to  be  saints  depends. 

The  other  type  of  separateness  which  has  been 
illustrated  in  history  may  without  injustice  be  called 
the  evangelical  one,  if  we  use  that  term  in  its  conven- 
tional rather  than  its  New  Testament  meaning.  It 
proscribes  the  world,  not  as  a  whole,  like  the  Roman 
Catholic  view,  but  piecemeal — in  such  and  such  parts 
and  aspects  of  it  as  are  judged  by  earnest  Christians 
to  be  inconsistent  with  devotion  to  God.  It  says,  not 
of  the  world  as  a  whole,  but  of  some  things  in  it, 
"Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not";  and  it  makes  of 
the  corresponding  abstentions  the  badge  of  the  people 
of  God.  When  the  great  evangelical  revival  of  the 
eighteenth  century  took  place,  it  was  accompanied 
with  a  conception  of  the  saints'  calling,  or  of  the  duty 
of  God's  people,  of  this  kind.  For  those  who  took  this 
calling  seriously,  there  could  be  no  dancing,  no  novel 
reading,  no  card  parties,  no  theatre  going  :  these  things 
were  all  of  the  world,  not  of  God,  and  those  who  took 
part  in  them  could  claim  to  be  God's  people  no  longer. 
Doubtless  this  judgment,  for  those  who  first  framed 


ii8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

it  and  made  it  the  rule  of  their  own  Hfe,  was  sound 
enough.  I  do  not  wish  to  suggest  that  it  has  nothing 
in  it  worth  thinking  of  now.  Who  will  question  that 
if  we  were  in  earnest  with  our  calling  to  be  saints  such 
things  would  have  a  different  complexion  and  a 
different  proportion  in  some  of  our  lives  from  that 
which  they  have  at  present  ?  Nevertheless,  to  try  to 
fulfil  the  saint's  calling,  simply  by  observing  such  ab- 
stentions as  the  circumstances  of  one  particular  age 
or  one  particular  revival  have  pronounced  obligatory, 
is  futile.  Experience  condemns  it  as  unequivocally 
as  it  does  the  Roman  Catholic  plan.  When  it  has  its 
perfect  work,  it  does  not  produce  the  New  Testament 
saint,  but  a  character  conventional,  ungrounded,  incon- 
sistent, ineffective,  and  insincere. 

But  what  other  way,  it  may  be  asked,  is  left  ?  The 
answer  is  that  the  New  Testament  wa}^  is  left ;  and 
that  it  can  be  characterized  intelligibly  enough  for  any- 
one who  wishes  to  make  trial  of  it.  Perhaps  it  may 
be  said  of  it  generally  that  the  separateness  from  the 
world  which  it  implies  is  not  the  means  to  saintliness, 
but  the  manifestation  or  result  of  it.  Saintliness  is  not 
produced  by  separation  ;  it  is  expressed  in  separate- 
ness, but  it  is  produced  by  the  love  of  God.  All  the 
separation  which  is  required  will  be  apparent  in  lives 
in  which  the  love  of  God  is  the  supreme  and  all-em- 
bracing motive ;  but  separations  which  have  another 
motive  or  have  an  end  in  themselves  are  essentially 
unsound.  It  is  possible,  I  think,  to  indicate  positively 
the  characteristics  of  the  life  of  the  saint  as  a  life  de- 
termined throughout  by  the  love  of  God  in  Christ ; 
and  it  is  only  as  we  succeed  in  doing  so  that  we  do 
justice  to  the  New  Testament  view. 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  119 

It  is  a  life  of  inner  unity  and  consistency — the  life  of 
the  man  who  can  say  at  last,  "This  one  thing  I  do". 
Much  of  the  sin  and  misery  of  common  life  is  literally 
dissipation.  We  do  this  and  do  that,  are  busy  here 
and  there,  but  our  energies  do  not  converge  upon  any- 
thing ;  we  do  not  know  what  we  are  doing.  This  is 
one  of  the  things  which  impresses  many  with  the 
futility  of  life,  and  makes  them  cry,  "  Vanity  of  vanities, 
all  is  vanity  ".  But  it  disappears  from  the  life  of  those 
in  whom  the  redeeming  love  of  God  absorbs  all  good 
motives  into  itself  and  dominates  everything.  And  it 
is  a  mark  of  the  true  saint  to  have  the  assurance  that 
nothing  in  his  life  is  vain,  and  that  God  from  whom  it 
all  comes  is  using  it  all. 

Further,  the  life  of  the  saint  is  one  in  which  perfect 
freedom  and  full  responsibility  are  combined.  There 
is  no  law  laid  down  for  the  saint  beforehand  :  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  statutory  obedience  in  his  life, 
whether  the  statutes  be  conceived  as  Divine  or  human. 
Under  God,  or  rather  under  the  consciousness  of  the 
redeeming  love  of  God,  and  of  all  it  has  done  for  him, 
the  saint  is  a  law  to  himself  Remember  that  other 
expression  :  *'  beloved  of  God  ".  The  w^hole  of  Christi- 
anity, all  that  is  meant  by  the  calling  to  be  a  saint,  is 
in  that ;  but  everybody  has  to  find  out  what  it  involves 
for  himself,  in  the  peculiar  relations  and  conditions  of 
his  own  life.  He  has  to  say  to  himself,  "  Here  I  stand, 
encompassed  by  the  love  of  God — not  my  own,  but 
His.  Here  I  stand,  beheving  that  my  Hfe  is  dear  to 
Him,  and  that  through  it  His  will  and  purpose  are  to 
be  fulfilled  in  the  world.  Here  I  stand,  under  the 
constraint  of  the  atoning  death  of  Jesus,  and  the  gift 
of  His  Holy  Spirit — not  my  own,  I  repeat,  but  His. 


120  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

It  is  out  of  this  conviction,  out  of  the  sense  of  obligation 
involved  here,  that  my  v^hole  life  must  flow.  It  is 
only  what  does  come,  freely  yet  irresistibly,  spontane- 
ously yet  with  a  necessity  leaving  me  no  alternative, 
out  of  this  sense  of  obhgation,  which  belongs  to  my 
calling  as  a  saint  or  fulfils  it. "  In  one  word,  what  makes 
the  saint  is  responsibility  freely  faced  in  the  sense  of 
the  love  of  God.  Naturally  we  shrink  from  respon- 
sibility. Either  we  are  self-willed,  which  virtually 
means  that  we  deny  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  re- 
sponsibility, or  we  are  timid,  and  glad  to  have  some 
one  relieve  us  of  our  most  exacting  responsibility  by 
telling  us  what  our  duty  is.  The  Romanist  can  put  it 
on  his  spiritual  director ;  the  Protestant  can  evade  it 
by  being  conventional,  and  doing  what  other  people 
do  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  fulfil  the  calling  of  the  saint 
on  such  cheap  terms.  To  fulfil  that  calling  we  must 
realize  that  we  are  not  under  law  but  under  grace,  and 
that  it  is  all  between  ourselves  and  God.  We  must  face 
our  circumstances — which  for  us  are  the  world — our- 
selves, in  the  full  sense  of  the  love  which  God  has  to 
us  ;  and  we  must  decide  on  our  own  responsibility 
what  we  have  to  do  or  to  abstain  from  doing,  what  we 
have  to  resign  or  to  keep,  if  we  would  abide  in  that 
love,  and  prove  ourselves  not  our  own,  but  His.  In 
truth,  there  is  no  difference  in  this  respect  between  a 
man  and  a  saint.  It  is  responsibility  which  makes  a 
man ;  and  the  saint  is  just  a  man  who  takes  the  whole 
of  life's  responsibilities  upon  his  conscience — as  one 
beloved  of  God. 

The  life  of  the  saint,  according  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, will  also  be  marked  by  moral  originality.  He 
has  been  redeemed   from  all  that  is  conventional   in 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  121 

conduct — from  the  vain  conversation,  we  should  say  the 
empty  Hfe,  received  by  tradition  from  the  fathers.  He 
is  not  the  repetition  of  other  men,  nor  the  observer  of 
ahen  rules.  To  live  under  a  rule,  as  people  live  in  a 
monastic  order,  is  the  very  antithesis  of  the  saint's 
calling.  Every  act  of  the  saint  is  an  act  of  creation  in 
the  moral  world.  The  like  of  it  was  never  seen  before. 
No  law  prescribed  it,  yet  once  it  is  done  we  see  it  is 
supremely  right.  The  great  illustration  of  this  is  Jesus 
Himself,  the  only  person  who  is  spoken  of  in  the  New 
Testament  as  "the  saint  (or  holy  one)  of  God". 
Nothing  strikes  us  more  in  Jesus  than  His  incalculable- 
ness,  the  startling  newness  and  freshness  of  all  His 
words  and  deeds.  Who  could  imagine  Him  living 
under  a  monastic  rule  ?  Who  could  imagine  Him 
observing  the  moral  conventions  of  any  denomination 
or  sect  ?  Yet  He  is  the  only  inspiration  of  the  saint's 
life,  and  He  left  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow 
in  His  steps.  But  who  does  follow  except  the  man 
who  in  the  sense  of  God's  redeeming  love  is  no  longer 
a  slave  but  a  son,  and  does  in  a  way  which  is  all  his 
own  the  w^ill  of  the  Father  ? 

To  add  one  further  characteristic  :  the  life  of  the 
saint  is  morally  effective.  It  tells  upon  the  world  as 
genuine  goodness  tells,  and  the  will  and  purpose  of 
God  are  fulfilled  by  it.  The  saint  is  a  person  living 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  love  of  God,  and  everything 
that  is  in  him,  so  far  as  he  is  a  saint,  is  in  correspond- 
ence with  that  love.  His  holiness,  that  which  makes 
him  a  saint,  must  be  in  correspondence  with  it.  There 
must  be  something  redemptive  in  it,  something  which 
appeals  to  and  wins  men.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
holiness  which  is  not  inspired  by  the  sense  of  God's 


122  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

love,  but  by  selfishness,  or  by  the  desire  to  put  God 
under  obligations  to  us  ;  and  such  holiness  can  always 
be  detected  as  a  sham  by  this — it  has  no  redeeming 
power.  It  does  not  touch  the  sinful,  and  waken  in 
their  unhappy  hearts  a  longing  to  share  in  it ;  it  does 
not  stretch  out  helpful  hands  of  which  they  can  take 
hold.  But  those  who  are  called  to  be  saints  are  called 
to  be  holy  as  God  is  holy — that  God  whose  redeeming 
power  has  lifted  them  up  and  set  so  great  a  hope 
before  them  ;  and  if  they  are  fulfilling  their  calhng, 
then  all  through  their  life  men  will  feel  the  presence 
of  God  the  Redeemer.  Holiness,  the  character  of 
saints,  of  those  who  are  God's,  is  born  of  the  sense  of 
God's  love  ;  and  it  brings  the  sense  of  that  love  in  all 
its  redeeming  power,  and  in  all  the  new  hopes  which 
it  inspires,  to  those  who  behold  it. 

2.  The  greatness  of  this  life  may  well  seem  too 
great,  and,  indeed,  we  may  hear  professedly  Christian 
people  saying,  "  Of  course  I  don't  pretend  to  be  a 
saint ".  How  odd  such  a  sentence  would  look  in  the 
New  Testament,  where  the  saints  and  the  Christians 
are  the  same  thing.  *'  I  don't  pretend  to  be  a  saint  " 
can  only  mean  **  I  don't  take  the  Christian  religion 
quite  seriously  ".  It  is  as  if  a  man  said,  "  I  don't  mean 
to  deny  that  there  is  something  in  what  is  said  of  the 
love  of  God,  and  the  atonement  for  sin,  and  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit;  but  to  take  it  all  in  simple  earnest,  as 
literal  truth,  and  to  take  it  with  all  the  obligations  this 
would  imply — no,  I  certainly  don't  do  that,  and  don't 
think  of  doing  so  ".  Could  anything  be  more  profane 
than  to  respond  in  this  equivocal  way  to  the  Son  of 
God  who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us?  Better 
be  irreligious  outright  than  mock  with  this  deliberate 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  123 

want  of  earnestness  the  redeeming  love  of  God.  But 
sometimes  special  causes  discourage  us  from  taking 
our  calling  to  be  saints  with  seriousness  and  hope. 
There  is  the  past  which  we  can  never  forget,  which 
haunts  us  with  shame.  Yes,  but  God  knows  it  better 
than  we,  and  yet  His  love  has  come  to  us  in  Christ, 
and  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for  it  to  deal  with. 
*'  Thou  wilt  cast  all  their  sins  into  the  depth  of  the 
sea."  There  is  the  ever-present  sin  which  still  de- 
feats us — which  surprises  and  humbles  us  even  while 
we  look  to  the  love  of  God.  But  to  speak  truly,  is  it 
not  when  we  look  away  from  God's  love  that  we  fall  ? 
We  dare  not  say  that  the  evil  that  is  in  us  is  stronger 
than  He;  it  is  written,  *'He  will  subdue  their  ini- 
quities ".  Then  there  is  the  discouraging  wisdom  of 
this  world,  what  those  who  have  lived  without  God 
call  the  teaching  of  experience.  It  is  needless  and 
hopeless  (it  tells  us)  to  aim  so  high  ;  you  must  be 
sensible  ;  you  must  remember  what  human  nature  is 
both  in  yourself  and  in  other  people,  and  not  expect 
too  much  from  it.  To  be  a  saint  may  be  a  calling  in 
the  New  Testament,  but  it  is  not  a  calling  in  the 
streets  of  a  modern  city,  and  the  less  lofty  your  lan- 
guage, the  less  absurd  you  will  appear.  Of  course 
those  who  do  not  believe  in  God  and  His  love  cannot 
speak  in  any  other  strain.  If  there  is  no  God,  or  if 
we  are  not  beloved  of  God,  then  we  are  not  called  to 
be  His,  or  called  to  be  saints.  All  I  would  say  of  this 
worldly  wisdom  may  be  said  in  the  Apostle's  word  : 
"  This  persuasion  cometh  not  of  Him  who  calleth 
you  ". 

As  against  all  such   discouraging  thoughts,  let  us 
turn  to  the  final  and  conclusive  encouragement  which 


124  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

we  have  in  the  other  word  of  the  text — called.  What 
does  it  mean  to  say  that  we  are  called  to  be  saints, 
or  are  saints  in  virtue  of  a  call?  When  we  remember 
that  for  the  Apostle  it  is  always  God  who  calls,  we 
may  surely  say  such  things  as  these.  First,  our  calling 
to  be  saints  is  not  a  matter  of  indifference.  There  are 
things  in  the  world  which  are  of  little  consequence  :  it 
hardly  matters  what  our  relation  to  them  is.  But  a 
Divine  calling  cannot  be  one  of  such  things.  Re- 
member, it  is  God  who  calls.  He  calls  through  the 
Gospel ;  He  calls  through  the  life  and  words,  through 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  His  Son  ;  He  calls  through 
the  gift  and  ministry  of  His  Spirit ;  and  He  never  calls 
us  to  anything  else  or  less  than  this — to  be  saints.  It 
cannot  be  a  matter  of  no  consequence  how  we  respond 
to  such  a  call.  Further,  in  view  of  God's  call  we  can 
say  that  when  we  aspire  to  be  saints,  or  to  be  His 
people  in  this  world,  it  is  not  a  matter  of  presumption 
on  our  part.  It  is  not  a  life  for  which  we  volunteer,  or 
on  which  we  adventure  of  our  own  motion,  or  which 
we  have  to  carry  through  on  our  own  resources  ;  it  is 
a  hfe  to  which  we  have  a  Divine  summons,  and  that 
summons  is  our  justification.  Paul  in  the  first  sentence 
of  this  epistle  describes  himself  as  "called  to  be  an 
Apostle  ".  No  one  could  become  an  Apostle  just  by 
wishing  or  resolving  to  be  one  :  he  required  to  have  a 
call  from  God.  It  is  the  same  with  being  a  Christian 
— that  is,  a  saint.  It  would  be  presumption  if  we 
looked  at  it  as  an  adventure,  but  when  God  calls  us 
the  presumption  is  to  hold  back.  Most  important  of 
all :  to  have  a  calling  to  be  saints  is  to  be  assured  that 
the  issue  of  the  life  to  which  we  are  pledged  is  not  a 
matter  of  uncertainly.     We  can  face  it  not  only  with 


A  CHOSEN  GENERATION  125 

humility  but  with  hope.  In  his  history  of  the  early 
church,  Dr.  Rainy  sets  this  down  as  the  great  change 
which  came  upon  the  world  with  the  appearance  of 
Christianity :  the  life  of  goodness  became  an  assured 
career.  Before  the  Gospel  came,  despair  had  fallen 
upon  the  ancient  world ;  society  had  abandoned  the 
very  idea  and  hope  of  goodness  ;  **  deep  weariness  and 
sated  lust  made  human  life  a  hell ".  But  suddenly  a 
change  came.  Men  appeared  in  that  lost  world  with 
an  infinite  hope  in  their  hearts — an  assured  and  tri- 
umphant hope,  to  be  holy  as  God  is  holy  ;  and  it  spread 
from  heart  to  heart  till  in  the  Christian  Church  a  new 
people  of  God  became  visible  upon  earth,  a  society 
which  with  all  its  imperfections  was  a  communion  of 
saints.  What  was  it  that  made  the  change  ?  It  was  the 
sense  of  a  Divine  call  that  had  come  to  men.  And  how 
had  it  come  ?  It  came  through  the  revelation  of  the  love 
of  God.  If  we  are  ignorant  of  this,  then  any  life  like 
that  which  the  saints  set  before  them  must  appear  fan- 
tastic and  unreal.  But  if  we  know  what  that  word 
means,  "beloved  of  God,"  it  will  open  to  us  the  mean- 
ing of  the  other,  "  called  to  be  saints  ".  And  that  brings 
us  back  to  the  point  from  which  we  started.  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  this  to  lean  upon  that  we  dare  aspire 
so  high.  It  is  only  as  we  lean  upon  it  that  our  calling 
to  be  God's  becomes  credible,  practicable,  real.  They 
are  the  two  most  wonderful  things  in  the  world,  the 
most  incredible  to  start  with,  the  most  humbling,  the 
most  uplifting,  the  m.ost  Divine — "beloved  of  God," 
"  called  to  be  saints  ".  In  the  celebration  of  the  Supper 
to-day  we  have  been  reassuring  ourselves  of  the  first. 
We  have  been  taking  the  redeeming  love  of  God  to 
ourselves  again  in  all  its  fulness,  the  love  manifested 


126  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

in  the  passion  of  our  Lord ;  shall  we  not  take  it  also 
in  its  infinite  obligation,  in  its  infinite  hope  ?  For  to 
be  the  people  of  God  in  the  world  is  for  those  who  are 
so  called  to  it  not  only  a  duty  but  a  hope.  It  is  a  thing 
to  lift  up  our  hearts  to  with  humility,  assurance,  and 
joy.  And  when  we  are  discouraged  by  the  remem- 
brance of  what  we  have  been  or  what  we  are,  let  us 
remember  that  it  is  not  on  this  our  calling  rests ;  it 
rests  on  the  solemn  and  wonderful  truth  that  we  are 
beloved  of  God.  Underneath  all  our  sinfulness  and 
weakness,  underneath  our  past,  our  present,  and  our 
future,  lies  a  finished  work  of  Christ,  a  great  deep  of 
love  on  which  our  wrecked  and  stranded  lives  can  be 
floated  into  the  assurance  of  hope,  and  filled  with  all 
the  fulness  of  God.  We  cannot  speak  of  these  things 
as  they  should  be  spoken  of.  We  cannot  fix  our  hearts 
on  all  that  is  involved  in  them  as  they  should  be  fixed. 
But  as  we  think  of  how  God  loves  us  and  of  how  He 
has  shown  His  love — as  we  clasp  these  gracious  words 
to  our  hearts  and  claim  our  inheritance  in  them  : 
beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints — we  can  say,  ''  Unto 
Him  that  loveth  us,  and  loosed  us  from  our  sins  by 
His  blood,  and  made  us  a  kingdom,  even  priests  to  His 
God  and  Father  :  to  Him  be  the  glory  and  the  dominion 
for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS. 

'  If  I  had  said,  I  will  speak  thus  ;  Behold,  I  had  dealt  treacherously 
with  the  generation  of  thy  children."— Psalm  lxxiii.  15. 

The  Old  Testament  does  not  often  speak  of  children  of 
God,  yet  no  one  would  have  any  difficulty  in  under- 
standing to  whom  the  Psalmist  here  refers.  In  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  the  Israelites  generally  are  de- 
scribed by  this  title  :  "ye  are  children  to  Jehovah  your 
God  ;  ye  shall  not  follow  any  heathen  custom  ".  But 
even  in  ancient  times  it  had  become  plain  that  they 
were  not  all  Israel  that  were  of  Israel ;  within  the 
wide  circle  of  the  nation  there  was  a  narrower  circle 
of  those  who  really  were  what  it  was  called  to  be.  It 
is  this  narrower  circle,  the  true  people  of  God,  who 
are  here  described  as  the  generation  of  His  children. 
A  similar  expression  is  found  in  the  twenty-fourth 
Psalm.  The  Psalmisi;  asks  :  **  Who  shall  ascend  into  the 
hill  of  the  Lord,  and  who  shall  stand  in  His  holy  place  ?  " 
"  He  that  hath  clean  hands,"  he  answers,  "  and  a  pure 
heart :  who  hath  not  hfted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity,  and 
hath  not  sworn  deceitfully."  Such  he  assures  of  the 
blessing  of  God,  and  then  proceeds  :  "  This  is  the 
generation  of  them  that  seek  Him,  that  seek  Thy  face, 
O  God  of  Jacob  ".  In  other  words,  this  is  the  genera- 
tion of  God's  children.  Substantially  also,  in  the  last 
half  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  it  is  this  Israel  within  Israel 
which  is  meant  by  the  Servant  of  the  Lord.     In  spite 

(127) 


128  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  apostasy  and  all  its  painful  consequences,  there  ever 
remains  in  Israel  a  seed  to  serve  God,  a  spiritual  suc- 
cession of  men  and  women  true  to  Him.  They  have  a 
character  of  their  own ;  they  have  hopes  and  convic- 
tions peculiar  to  themselves ;  they  form  a  party  and  an 
interest  distinct  from  everything  else  in  the  world. 

This  was  not  only  true  when  the  Psalms  were 
written  ;  it  is  true  to-day.  At  this  moment,  there  is 
such  a  thing  in  the  world  as  the  generation  of  God's 
children,  the  spiritual  successors  of  those  to  whom  the 
Psalmist  refers ;  they  inherit  the  same  hopes,  and 
represent  the  same  ideals  and  beliefs.  It  is  a  great 
matter  to  recognize  this.  For  one  thing,  it  is  an  im- 
portant part  of  our  moral  security  to  have  our  place 
among  God's  children.  They  alone  are  perpetuated 
from  age  to  age  :  the  cause  with  which  they  are 
identified  is  the  only  one  against  which  time  does  not 
prevail.  For  another,  it  is  a  great  test  of  the  sound- 
ness of  our  judgment  in  spiritual  things  when  we  find 
ourselves  in  agreement  with  them.  **  I  love,"  says 
one  of  the  fathers  of  the  Scottish  Church,  **  I  love  to 
walk  in  the  steps  of  the  flock  "  ;  that  is,  I  love  to  find 
myself  at  one  with  the  generation  of  God's  children. 
The  individual  cannot  but  have  misgivings  if  he  feels 
inclined  to  set  his  own  wavering  judgment,  his  own 
unstable  faith,  his  own  brief  and  limited  experience, 
against  the  age-long  experience  and  the  immemorial 
convictions  of  the  people  of  God.  It  is  one  of  God's 
warnings  that  he  is  on  a  wrong  track  when  he  finds 
himself  at  variance  with  them.  To  dissent  from  them 
is  somehow  or  other  to  be  disloyal  to  them.  '^  If  I 
say,  I  will  speak  thus  " — that  is,  I  will  indulge  in 
sceptical,   unbelieving,   God-disowning   thoughts   and 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  129 

words—"  behold,  I  shall  be  a  trait.or  to  the  generation 
of  thy  children  ". 

The  one  mark  of  the  children  of  God  which  never 
varies  is  that  they  believe  in  Him.  From  generation 
to  generation  they  perpetuate  the  sublime  tradition  of 
faith.  In  various  modes,  through  all  sorts  of  dis- 
couragement, they  look  unceasingly  to  Him,  believing 
that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  those  who 
seek  Him.  The  Old  Testament  does  not  contain  any 
doctrines,  and  this  faith  is  the  whole  of  its  religion.  It 
is  the  element  in  the  life  of  our  race  which  ennobles  it 
and  makes  it  great.  It  is  that  which  has  inspired 
every  kind  of  virtue — patience,  self-denial,  self-sacrifice, 
superiority  to  the  senses  and  to  the  world  in  which 
they  live.  Could  there  be  a  more  fatal  symptom  of  a 
bad  heart  than  that  one  should  be  a  traitor  to  those 
who  represent  this  great  cause  upon  the  earth  ?  Could 
there  be  a  surer  sign  that  a  way  of  feeling,  thinking, 
speaking,  or  acting  was  wrong  than  this,  that  it  separ- 
ated a  man  from  those  who  in  all  ages  had  stood  for 
God  and  for  faith  in  Him  ? 

It  will  enable  us  to  appreciate  this  more  truly  if  we 
consider  some  of  the  ways  in  which  faith  in  God  is 
manifested,  and  in  which  we  may  prove  untrue  to  it. 

I.  Faith  in  God  implies  faith  in  His  government  of  the 
world.  This  is  the  particular  aspect  of  faith  with 
which  the  Psalmist  is  here  concerned.  No  doubt  it 
belongs  to  the  nature  of  faith  that  it  should  be  tried  ; 
if  there  were  not  appearances  against  it,  it  would  not 
be  faith  ;  it  would  be  sight.  The  contrary  appearances 
are  what  challenges  faith  and  puts  it  to  the  proof,  and 
it  is  in  asserting  itself  against  them  that  faith  shows 
its  genuineness  and  strength.     It  is  manifest  that  the 

9 


I30  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Psalmist  had  had  more  than  enough  to  try  his  faith  in 

the  Divine  government.      When   he  looked   abroad 

upon  the  earth,  it  was  as  though  God  had  abandoned 

it,  or  rather  as  though  there  were  no  God  at  all.     He 

saw  all  power   and    prosperity  in    the  hands  of  the 

wicked,  and  he  saw  this  power  and  prosperity  generate 

in    them  an   arrogant  and  godless   confidence  which 

language  almost  fails  to  describe.     "They  scoff,  and 

in  wickedness   utter   oppression :  they   speak  loftily. 

They  have  set  their  mouth  in  the  heavens,  and  their 

tongue  walketh  through  the  earth  .  .  .  and  they  say, 

How  doth  God  know  ?  and  is  there  knowledge  in  the 

Most   High?"     It  is    the    reign    of  atheism  at    once 

practical  and  theoretical — not  confined  to  the  disregard 

of  God's  will  in  action,   but  advancing  impiously  to 

flout  the  very  idea  that  He  knows  or  cares  for  what 

is  done  on  earth.     When  such  a  situation  lasts  long,  it 

undoubtedly  brings  with  it  the  temptation  to  doubt 

the  government  of  God.     Even  believing  men  like  the 

Psalmist  find  sceptical  thoughts  rising  involuntarily  in 

their  minds.     What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  be  good  ? 

What  profit  is  it  to  serve  God  ?     It  gains  nothing. 

It  exempts  from  nothing.     "Surely  in  vain  have  I 

cleansed  my  heart,  and  washed  my  hands  in  inno- 

cency.     For  all  the  day  long  have  I  been  plagued, 

and  chastened  every  morning."     Goodness  is  a  mere 

futility  which  in  the  life  of  the  world  does  not  count 

at  all.     Such  is  the  hot,  impatient,  despairing  speech 

which  bursts  from  this  good  man's  lips  as  he  looks 

round  him  on  the  moral  confusions  of  earth,  and  the 

seeming  absence  of  God.     But  all  of  a  sudden  it  is 

checked.     The  "behold"  in  the  text  reveals  how  he 

was  startled  by  the  thought  which   flashed  into   his 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  131 

mind.  What,  it  was  suggested  to  him,  does  the  in- 
dulgence of  this  sceptical  temper  mean  ?  It  means 
that  I  am  betraying  the  cause  for  which  the  children 
of  God  have  fought  the  good  fight  from  generation  to 
generation,  that  I  am  deserting  the  forlorn  hope  of 
the  good  to  side  with  the  enemies  of  God  and  man. 
God  forbid !  Be  my  soul  with  the  saints,  and  shall 
my  mind  cherish  thoughts,  shall  my  lips  speak  words, 
that  are  disloyal  to  their  faith,  their  hopes,  their  sacri- 
fices ?  To  choose  your  creed  is  to  choose  your  com- 
pany, and  the  feeling  that  such  scepticism  would  range 
him  in  base  opposition  to  the  Israel  of  God  is  the 
first  thing  which  rallies  the  Psalmist  again  to  assert 
his  faith. 

Surely  the  lesson  of  this  is  plain.  The  things  that 
tried  the  Psalmist's  faith  have  not  yet  vanished  from 
the  w^orld.  Those  who  can  form  any  conception  of 
what  is  involved  in  the  government  of  the  Armenians 
and  the  Macedonians  by  the  Turks  —  those  who 
followed  through  weary  years  the  indescribable  bar- 
barities perpetrated  systematically  by  a  so-called 
Christian  government  on  the  Congo — those  who  realize 
what  is  involved  in  the  position  and  influence  of  the 
liquor  trade  in  this  country — those  who  see  how  human 
beings  are  dehumanized  alike  by  the  excessive  wealth 
and  the  extreme  poverty  which  our  civilization  seems 
to  engender  :  all  these  may  well  be  tempted  to  wonder 
whether  God  does  govern  the  world,  or  whether  He 
cares  at  all  for  what  happens  here.  But  let  no  one 
think  that  the  trials  of  faith  are  arguments  for  unbelief. 
No :  they  are  trumpet  calls  for  witnesses  for  God  ; 
for  soldiers,  for  martyrs,  for  men  and  women  who  will 
fight  God's  battle  against   all  odds,  and  though  they 


132  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

die  fighting  die  assured  of  victory  at  last  All  the 
hope  of  the  world  lies  in  them,  not  in  the  cynical  or 
sceptical  who  say,  How  doth  God  know  ? 

And  in  our  own  private  concerns,  as  well  as  in  the 
larger  outlook  upon  life,  this  temptation  has  to  be  en- 
countered and  overcome.  There  are  people  who  seem 
haunted  by  misfortune — "plagued,"  as  the  Psalmist 
says,  ''all  day  long,  and  chastened  every  morning". 
They  are  not  bad  people  either ;  they  may  be  sincere, 
well-meaning,  devout.  For  a  while,  they  bear  up 
against  their  troubles,  and  ascribe  them  to  chance  or 
to  some  mismanagement  of  their  own  ;  but  as  courage 
fails  they  are  tempted  to  say,  The  strife  is  useless; 
there  is  no  care  taken  by  God  of  human  life,  or  we 
could  never  fare  thus.  But  to  speak  so  is  to  desert 
the  faith  of  all  the  good.  It  is  to  desert  the  conviction 
which  has  made  numberless  lowly,  suffering,  and  dis- 
appointed lives  beautiful  with  a  beauty  beyond  that 
of  earthly  success.  It  is  to  separate  ourselves  from 
those  to  whose  patience  and  hope  all  that  is  finest  in 
human  character  is  due.  Surely  this  is  the  proof  that 
it  is  a  great  mistake.  Surely  the  true  course  is  to 
remain  loyal  to  the  generation  of  God's  children,  and 
to  add  something  of  our  own  to  the  most  priceless 
treasure  of  our  race — the  inherited  conviction  that 
God  is  everywhere  present  in  the  life  of  man,  directing 
it  to  Divine  ends,  and  in  spite  of  disconcerting  appear- 
ances making  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  Him.  This  is  the  patience  and  the 
faith  of  the  saints ;  do  not,  however  you  are  tried, 
betray  or  belie  it,  but  by  your  own  faith  and  patience 
set  a  new  seal  to  its  truth. 

2.  Faith  in  God's  government  of  the  world  is  what 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  133 

the  Psalmist  is  fighting  for,  but  faith  in  God  has  other 
aspects.  It  involves  faith  in  the  authority  of  His  law. 
It  means  the  conviction  that  there  is  an  eternal  dis- 
tinction between  right  and  wrong  which  can  never  be 
explained  away.  It  means  that  the  right  is  something 
absolutely  binding — not  something  to  be  deduced  from 
other  things  essentially  variable,  and  therefore  liable 
to  vary  with  them  ;  and  that  the  wrong  is  in  the  same 
way  absolutely  to  be  repelled.  There  are,  as  we 
know,  philosophers  who  refuse  to  accept  any  such 
distinction.  On  the  ground  that  the  moral  conscious- 
ness in  man  has  developed,  they  hold  that  all  definitions 
of  right  and  wrong  are  relative;  things  are  right  at 
one  stage  which  would  be  wrong  at  another;  they  are 
right  for  one  man  when  they  would  be  wrong  for 
another ;  a  right  and  wrong  which  are  not  to  be  argued 
about,  but  merely  recognized — in  which  there  can  be 
no  room  for  adjustment  whatever,  but  only  submission 
to  the  absolute  will  of  God — these  are  ideas  w^hich  the 
subtle  modern  intelligence  has  outgrown.  Nor  is  it 
only  philosophers  or  professional  moralists  who  speak 
thus.  A  vast  proportion  of  the  general  literature 
which  deals  with  human  life  takes  this  sceptical  attitude. 
It  takes  it  avowedly  and  of  set  purpose.  It  lays  itself 
out  to  show  that  the  man  who  asserts  the  absolute 
authority  of  what  he  calls  the  law  of  God — or  rather 
of  what  the  generation  of  God's  children  have  always 
recognized  as  His  law — is  a  dull  and  narrow-minded 
man,  with  no  flexibility  of  intellect,  no  sensitiveness  to 
the  multiplicity  of  nature.  He  needs  to  be  mentally 
emancipated,  and  once  he  is,  his  moral  austerity  will 
see  that  it  has  no  ground. 

I   will  refer  to   two  instances  of  this,  from   quite 


134  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

different  quarters  of  the  moral  world.  Every  one  who 
has  been  brought  up  in  the  Christian  Church  knows 
the  law  of  personal  purity  which  is  constituted  by  the 
teaching  and  the  life  of  Jesus.  He  knows  that  this  is 
the  will  of  God,  even  our  sanctification,  that  every  one 
should  keep  his  body  in  purity  and  honour.  But  he 
will  very  soon  discover  that  there  are  philosophies  of 
morality  which  cannot  vindicate  and  do  not  promul- 
gate any  such  law.  An  ostentatiously  anti-Christian 
writer,  like  the  late  Sir  Leslie  Stephen,  frankly  ac- 
knowledges that  those  thinkers  who  have  sought  to 
explain  morality  on  utilitarian  grounds  have  shown  as 
a  rule  a  strong  tendency  to  relaxed  ideas  on  this  vital 
subject.  And  how  many  novelists  there  are,  exhibiting 
their  criticism  of  life  in  all  languages,  who  seem  to 
have  it  as  their  one  motive  to  show  that  there  is  nothing 
absolute  in  the  seventh  commandment.  A  man  is  to 
be  true  to  his  wife,  naturally ;  but  it  is  a  poor  kind  of 
truth  to  sacrifice  to  his  legal  obligations  to  one  woman 
the  genuine  love  for  another  in  which  his  true  being 
would  attain  its  full  realization.  What  should  we  say 
when  we  encounter  ideas  of  this  kind,  in  philosophy  or 
in  literature,  in  cruder  or  in  subtler  forms  ?  Let  them 
be  met  on  their  own  ground,  by  all  means;  let  bad 
philosophy  be  confuted  by  good ;  let  the  inadequacy 
of  such  theories  to  explain  the  actual  moral  contents 
of  hfe  be  made  clear ;  but  before  everything,  let  the 
soul  purge  itself  from  every  shadow  of  complicity  in 
them  in  the  indignant  words  of  the  Psalm,  "  If  I  spoke 
thus,  I  should  be  false  to  the  generation  of  God's 
children."  I  should  desert  those  who  have  done  more 
than  all  others  to  lift  the  life  of  man  from  the  natural 
to  the  spiritual  level.     I  should  betray  the  cause  of 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  135 

Christ  and  of  all  the  saints  to  strengthen  the  cause,  at 
best  of  David  Hume,  at  worst  of  the  brute  in  man. 

The  second  illustration  will  seem  to  many  frivolous 
by  comparison,  but  that  may  itself  be  a  proof  of  its 
seriousness.  The  fourth  commandment  is,  Remember 
the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy — that  is,  remember 
the  day  of  rest  to  keep  it  unto  God.  We  are  all  aware 
that  this  is  a  subject  on  which  there  is  a  remarkable 
laxity  or  even  an  entire  absence  of  conscience  among 
ordinarily  good  people.  The  day  is  remembered, 
certainly ;  it  is  a  day  off,  and  in  that  sense  is  not  likely 
to  be  overlooked  ;  but  it  is  not,  as  the  commandment 
requires,  kept  unto  God.  It  is  often  kept  to  ourselves 
— to  amusement,  to  indolence,  to  idle  reading.  Those 
who  believe  in  having  a  day  off  once  a  week  are 
hardly  at  liberty  to  say  that  the  fourth  commandment 
is  annulled  by  the  higher  principle  which  claims  every 
day  for  God.  It  is  common  ground  between  them 
and  the  saints  that  to  make  one  day  in  seven  excep- 
tional is  an  excellent  thing,  and  the  only  question  that 
remains  to  be  settled  is  what  exceptional  use  of  it  is 
the  best  which  can  be  made.  Of  course  this  is  left 
for  decision  to  every  man's  conscience  :  let  no  man 
judge  you  in  respect  of  a  Sabbath,  as  St.  Paul  says. 
But  it  is  conscience  which  is  to  judge — conscience, 
and  not  the  caprice  of  the  man  whose  real  thought  is 
that  this  is  a  matter  in  which  conscience  has  nothing 
to  say.  Once  let  conscience  speak,  and  the  ancient 
law  which  claims  the  day  peculiarly  for  rest  and  for 
God  will  soon  assert  its  authority.  If  you  are  in  doubt 
as  to  what  is  or  is  not  legitimate  on  the  exceptional 
day  of  the  week,  call  up  to  your  mind  the  best  people 
you   have   known,  the  generation  of  God's  children, 


136  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

and  let  their  conscience  and  practice  weigh  with  you. 
Distrust  yourself  if  your  conduct  makes  you  disloyal 
to  them.  Do  not  speak  about  the  Sabbath,  or  if  you 
prefer  to  call  it  so,  the  Sunday — do  not  speak  about 
what  Christians  rejoice  in  as  the  Lord's  Day — in  a 
way  which  betrays  the  high  interests  of  the  soul  to 
which  the  day  has  been  devoted  from  the  beginning 
by  those  who  best  knew  God.  Be  true  to  the  good. 
Be  loyal  to  those  on  whom  God  has  set  His  seal,  and 
count  such  loyalty  an  honour  higher  far  than  that  of 
any  reputation  for  liberality  of  mind.  Who  is  so 
likely  to  be  in  the  wrong,  on  a  question  of  this  kind, 
as  the  man  who  finds  himself  in  opposition  to  the 
saints  of  all  time  ? 

3.  Once  more,  faith  in  God  implies  faith  in  His 
promises :  it  implies  in  the  last  resort  faith  in  the 
greatest  of  His  promises,  the  promise  of  eternal  life. 
This  is  directly  suggested  by  the  context.  True,  it 
was  not  at  first  seen  by  believers  in  God.  The  God 
whom  faith  apprehends  is  so  great  that  all  that  is 
involved  in  faith  cannot  be  apprehended  in  an  instant. 
But  it  comes  into  view  by  degrees.  As  the  Scottish 
father  whom  I  quoted  at  the  beginning  has  said, 
"  Eternity  is  wrapt  up  and  implied  in  every  truth  of 
religion  ".  A  religious  life,  or  a  life  of  faith,  means  at 
bottom  life  in  God  ;  and  life  in  God  is  hfe  over  which 
death  has  no  power.  The  Psalmist  had  attained  to 
this  truth,  and  gives  expression  to  it  in  words  of 
deathless  sublimity  and  beauty.  "Nevertheless,  I 
am  continually  with  Thee;  Thou  hast  holden  my 
right  hand.  Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  Thy  counsel, 
and  afterward  receive  me  to  glory.  Whom  have  I 
in  heaven  but  Thee?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  137 

that  I  desire  beside  Thee.  My  flesh  and  my  heart 
faileth,  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  my 
portion  for  ever."  This  is  the  full  compass  of  faith  in 
God — faith  with  its  amplest  range  of  vision,  and 
speaking  in  its  clearest  tones.  This  is  v^hat  ultimately 
characterizes  the  generation  of  God's  children. 

But  how  few  there  are  who  can  naturally  speak 
thus !  How  difficult  it  is  for  us,  when  we  use  such 
words  in  our  praise,  to  feel  that  we  have  any  right  to 
them  !  Our  own  faith  in  immortality  is  often  languid, 
often  in  abeyance.  Sometimes  the  idea  eludes  us ; 
sometimes  we  do  not  know  whether  it  is  a  hope  or  a 
dread.  We  are  painfully  sensible  of  all  the  appear- 
ances which  are  against  it.  We  feel  our  kinship  with 
all  the  other  life  in  the  world,  which  is  not  immortal. 
We  feel  how  hard,  nay  how  impossible  it  is  to  draw  a 
line  across  it  at  any  particular  point,  and  to  say  that 
all  that  is  on  one  side  is  mortal,  while  all  that  is  on 
the  other  onl}^  passes  through  death  to  enter  into 
immortality.  The  statement  once  made  by  Lord 
Lister  at  the  British  Association — that  anaesthetics 
suspend  the  functions  of  vegetable  as  well  as  of  animal 
life — in  its  simple  truth  makes  the  blood  run  cold.  It 
is  all  one  thing,  we  seem  to  feel,  in  plant,  in  animal, 
in  man ;  it  springs  from  one  fountain,  it  runs  one 
course,  it  comes  to  one  end.  No  wonder  the  mediaeval 
proverb  says,  *^  Three  physicists,  two  atheists  "  ;  the 
whole  analogy  of  nature  is  against  immortality.  When 
we  think  of  the  immense  mass  of  human  intelligence 
which  is  now  being  trained  in  the  sciences  that  use 
only  physical  categories,  we  can  understand  the  im- 
mense pressure  under  which  faith  has  to  assert  itself, 
the  hardness  of  the  battle  it  has  to  fight.    Imagination 


138  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

is    chilled  and  appalled  in  such  an  atmosphere,  and 
faith  is  benumbed  where  it  is  not  killed  outright. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  one  thing  to  feel  the  difficulties 
which  are  thus  created  for  faith,  and  another  to  suc- 
cumb to  them.     There  are  two  ways  in  which  faith 
when  hardly  pressed   can  react  against   this    trying 
environment.     One  is  to  recall  the  fact,  that  true  as 
the  disconcerting  phenomena  referred  to  may  be,  they 
are  not  the  whole  truth.     A  man's  life  is  one  the  func- 
tions  of  which  can   be  suspended  by  an  anaesthetic 
just  like  those  of  a  dog  or  a  plant :  no  one  can  question 
that.       But  a  man's  life  is  also  one  which  can  raise 
itself  to  the  immortal  faith  of  this  Psalm  :  "  Thou  shalt 
guide  me  by  Thy  counsel,  and  afterward  receive  me 
unto  glory  ".    This  sublime  faith  in  God  belongs  as  much 
to  the  realities  of  human  life  as  the  insensibility  induced 
by  chloroform.      It  is  not  only  as  true  as  the  other,  it 
is  far  more    true  in    this    sense,  that  it    marks  what 
human  nature  is  when  it  has  really  reached  its  height. 
This  is  the  self-expression  of  man  when  he  comes  to  the 
full  stature  of  manhood.     A  man  under  chloroform  is 
not  a  man ;  no  one  breathes  the  native  air  of  the  soul, 
no  one  speaks  its  native  language,  no  one  moves  in 
the  liberty  for  which  it  was  born,  till  he  can  make 
these  words  his  own.     It  is  of  those  who  speak  thus 
and  of  them  only  that  we  can  say,  "  This  is  the  genera- 
tion of  them  that  seek  Thee,  the  generation  of  Thy  chil- 
dren, O  God  of  Jacob  ".    And  the  second  way  to  react 
against   sceptical    thoughts  about   immortality  is  the 
one  which  is  directly  given  in  the  text.      When  such 
thoughts  press  upon  us,  when    the   arguments    that 
death  ends  all  seem  conclusive  and  we  have  nothing 
to  urge  against  them,  when  the  sense  of  our  mortality 


LOYALTY  TO  THE  SAINTS  139 

is  importunate  and  we  do  not  know  how  to  mitigate 
or  to  evade  it,  let  us  say  to  ourselves  :  If  I  yield  to 
such  impressions,  I  separate  myself  from  the  gener- 
ation of  God's  children.  In  a  question  of  spiritual 
import  I  take  the  opposite  side  from  all  who  have 
been  distinguished  by  spiritual  insight  and  by  know- 
ledge of  God.  I  become  disloyal  to  the  Psalmist  and 
to  all  who  have  made  his  words  their  own — disloyal 
to  Jesus,  and  to  the  faith  in  which  He  lived  and  died 
— disloyal  to  the  martyrs — disloyal  to  all  who  have 
fallen  asleep  in  Jesus  in  the  sure  and  blessed  hope  of 
a  glorious  resurrection.  Is  it  nothing  to  be  on  the 
other  side  in  such  circumstances  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  be 
aware  that  the  great  spirits  of  our  race  are  on  the  side 
we  are  abandoning?  And  for  whom  ?  For  whom, 
I  say,  not  for  what ;  for  again  we  must  remember  that 
to  choose  our  creed  is  to  choose  our  company.  Can 
we  appeal  to  names  on  the  other  side  that  command 
an  equal  reverence  ?  No  one,  I  fancy,  has  ever  argued 
more  subtly  against  immortality  than  Hume :  but 
what  has  Hume  contributed  to  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  world  that  he  should  be  counted  an  authority  at 
all  ?  Who  would  weigh  his  negative  inferences, 
whatever  the  weight  of  logic  behind  them,  against  the 
insight  and  conviction  of  this  Psalm,  against  the  assur- 
ance of  Jesus,  against  the  struggling  yet  ever  trium- 
phant faith  of  the  generation  of  God's  children  ?  None 
who  would  be  loyal  to  the  best  that  man  has  been. 
None  who  have  generosity  enough  to  comprehend  the 
sudden  emotion  of  this  text :  *'  If  I  spoke  thus,  behold,  I 
should  be  a  traitor  to  the  generation  of  Thy  children"- 
I  will  add  one  word  of  application  to  this  interpre- 
tation of  the  text :  Associate  with  God's  children,  and 


I40  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

let  their  convictions  inspire  yours  ;  frequent  the  church, 
and  let  the  immemorial  faith  of  all  saints  beget  itself 
in  you  anew.  It  is  one  great  service  of  the  Church 
that  it  perpetuates  the  tradition  of  faith — that  sublime 
voices  like  those  of  this  Psalm  are  for  ever  sounding 
in  it,  waking  echoes  and  Amens  in  our  hearts — that 
characters  and  convictions  of  the  highest  type  are 
generated  in  it,  not  by  logic  but  by  loyalty,  not  by 
argument  but  by  sympathy  with  the  good — deep  calling 
unto  deep.  We  need  the  common  faith  to  sustain  our 
individual  faith ;  we  need  the  consciousness  of  the 
children  of  God  in  all  ages  to  fortify  our  waver- 
ing belief  in  His  government,  His  law  and  His  pro- 
mises. To  be  at  home  in  the  Church  is  to  absorb  this 
strength  unconsciously.  It  is  to  be  delivered  from 
the  shallows  and  miseries  of  a  too  narrow  experience, 
and  set  afloat  on  the  broad  stream  of  Christian  con- 
viction which  gathers  impetus  and  volume  with  every 
generation  the  saints  survive. 


DEGREES  OF  REALITY  IN  REVELATION 
AND  RELIGION. 

"  This  is  he  that  came  by  water  and  blood,  even  Jesus  Christ ;  not  with 
the  water  only,  but  with  the  water  and  with  the  blood.  And  it  is 
the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  because  the  Spirit  is  the  truth. — 
I  John  v.  6  f. 

There  are  three  different  connexions  in  which  John 
emphasizes  water  and  blood  in  a  way  resembling  that 
w^hich  strikes  us  here.  First,  there  are  the  two 
chapters  in  his  Gospel — the  third  and  the  sixth — with 
their  reference  to  the  Christian  sacraments.  "  Except 
a  man  be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God."  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh 
of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  His  blood,  ye  have  not 
life  in  yourselves."  In  the  sacraments  of  Baptism  and 
the  Supper,  the  water  and  the  blood  are  symbolized, 
and  their  virtue  is  perpetuated  for  the  Church.  Then 
there  is  the  singular  passage  in  which  an  incident  of 
the  Passion  is  specially  emphasized.  *'  One  of  the 
soldiers  with  a  spear  pierced  His  side,  and  straightway 
there  came  out  blood  and  water."  That  the  evangelist 
attached  some  strange  and  extraordinary  importance 
to  this  is  apparent  from  the  solemnity  with  which  he 
attests  it.  ''And  he  that  hath  seen  hath  borne  wit- 
ness, and  his  witness  is  true ;  and  he  knoweth  that 
he  saith  true,  that  ye  also  may  believe."     And  finally 

(141) 


142  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

there  is   the   passage  in  the   epistle  which   we   have 
taken  as  a  text. 

The  point  emphasized  in  this  last  passage  is  that 
when  we  think  of  Jesus  Christ  the  water  and  the 
blood  are  not  to  be  separated  :  Jesus  came,  not  in  one 
only,  but  in  the  other  also.  The  key  to  this  puzzling 
statement  is  to  be  found  in  chapter  four,  at  the  third 
verse.  There  we  read  in  our  English  Bibles,  that 
every  spirit  which  confesseth  not  Jesus  is  not  of  God  ; 
but  as  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version  tells  us,  some 
ancient  authorities  read,  every  spirit  which  annulleth 
Jesus  is  not  of  God.  Annulleth  is  the  rendering  of  the 
Latin  solvit,  a  word  which  occurs  in  all  Latin  manu- 
scripts but  one,  and  which  points  quite  distinctly  to  a 
separation  of  elements  in  the  being  or  experience  of 
Jesus  analogous  to  that  which  is  forbidden  here.  In 
point  of  fact  we  know  on  other  grounds  that  there 
were  those  who  made  such  a  separation.  Among  the 
contemporaries  of  John  at  Ephesus  there  was  a  prom- 
inent teacher  called  Cerinthus  who  taught,  to  put  it 
so,  that  Jesus  came  with  the  water  only.  He  held 
that  all  that  was  Divine  in  Jesus  descended  upon  Him 
when  He  was  baptized,  and  that  all  that  He  did  in 
virtue  of  the  power  with  which  He  was  then  invested 
was  Divine.  The  new  teaching  which  so  impressed 
men  with  its  authority — the  words  of  eternal  life  by 
which  the  souls  of  men  were  quickened  toward  God — 
the  mighty  works  which  delivered  men  oppressed  and 
enslaved  by  the  devil :  all  these  were  Divine,  but  these 
only.  Whatever  was  of  God  in  Jesus,  whatever  con- 
stituted Him  the  Son  of  God,  withdrew  from  Him  as 
Calvary  came  near.  The  Son  of  God  did  not  come 
through  blood.    The  Christ  did  not  really  pass  through 


REALITY  IN  REVELATION  143 

the  degrading  and  squalid  tragedy  of  the  Crucifixion. 
He  left  the  mere  man  Jesus,  or  perhaps  a  mere  phan- 
tom, to  undergo  the  passion ;  but  all  that  was  Divine 
was  absent  then.  This  is  what  John  so  emphatically 
denies.  As  against  all  such  separations  he  protests 
that  the  Son  of  God  came  by  water  and  by  blood. 
That  strange  and  moving  incident  at  the  cross  re- 
minds us  of  it.  The  sacraments  are  a  perpetual  wit- 
ness to  it.  Something  vital  goes  out  of  our  religion  if 
it  is  denied. 

Possibly  there  are  some  who  can  hardly  take  the 
trouble  to  understand  this :  it  seems  to  them  so  crazy, 
remote,  and  unreal  that  their  minds  refuse  to  attend  to 
it.  But  this  is  a  mistake.  It  raises  an  extremely 
serious  question,  a  question  never  more  keenly  dis- 
cussed than  at  this  hour,  though  under  other  forms. 
It  may  be  put  somewhat  in  this  fashion.  We  who  are 
Christians  believe  that  in  Jesus  Christ  the  love  of  God 
has  been  revealed  for  our  salvation,  and  the  question 
is.  What  kind  or  degree  of  reality  belongs  to  that  love  ? 
John's  answer  is  emphatic.  It  is  no  less  real  than  our 
own  life  and  death  ;  it  is  as  real  as  blood.  And  the  im- 
mediate inference  is  that  the  religion  which  is  our 
response  to  this  revelation  must  have  a  corresponding 
reality.  Hence  there  are  two  subjects,  or  rather  two 
aspects  of  one  subject,  suggested  by  this  text;  (i)  the 
reality  of  God's  redeeming  love,  (2)  the  reality  of  our 
response  to  it. 

I.  The  reality  of  God's  redeeming  love.  It  is  easy 
to  puzzle  the  mind  with  questions  about  reality,  especi- 
ally where  God  is  concerned.  Every  one  has  heard 
of  the  astronomer  who  swept  the  heavens  with  his 
telescope  and  found  no  trace  of  God.     That  is  not  very 


144  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

disconcerting.  We  do  not  ascribe  to  God  the  same 
kind  of  reality  as  we  do  to  the  stars,  and  are  not  dis- 
appointed if  the  astronomer  does  not  detect  him  as  he 
might  a  hitherto  unnoticed  planet.  M.  Renan  some- 
where speaks  of  God  as  ''  the  category  of  the  ideal  " ; 
that  is,  he  ascribes  to  God  that  kind  of  reality  which 
belongs  to  the  high  thoughts,  aspirations,  and  hopes  of 
the  mind.  Certainly  we  should  not  disparage  the 
ideal  or  its  power,  and  still  less  should  we  speak  lightly 
of  those  who  devote  themselves  to  ideals  and  cherish 
faith  in  them.  But  to  redeem  and  elevate  such  crea- 
tures as  we  are,  more  is  needed  ;  and  what  the  Apostle 
is  so  emphatic  about  is  that  God  has  come  to  save  us 
not  with  the  reality  of  ideals,  but  with  the  realit}^  of  all 
that  is  most  real  in  the  life  we  live  on  earth,  in  the 
battle  we  fight  in  the  flesh,  in  the  death  that  we  die- 
He  has  come  with  the  reality  of  blood.  The  Christian 
religion  is  robbed  of  what  is  most  vital  in  it  if  the 
historical  Christ  and  the  historical  passion  cease  to  be 
the  very  heart  of  it. 

Sometimes  this  robbery,  by  which  the  faith  is  ruined, 
is  perpetrated  on  philosophical  principles.  The  import- 
ant thing  in  the  Gospel,  we  are  told,  is  the  ethical  prin- 
ciple of  it — the  idea  that  we  must  die  to  live,  must 
sacrifice  the  lower  life  for  the  sake  of  the  higher ;  grasp 
this,  and  everything  else  becomes  indifferent.  Jesus 
may  have  been  the  first  to  grasp  it  clearly,  but  it  is  not 
dependent  on  Him ;  and  once  we  have  clearly  grasped 
it,  we  are  not  dependent  on  Him  either.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  enables  us  to  understand  Him,  to  appreciate 
what  He  has  done  for  the  common  good,  to  assign  Him 
His  due  place  among  the  great  men  who  have  contri- 
buted to  the  enlightenment  and  uplifting  of  our  race. 


REALITY  IN  REVELATION  145 

I  say  again,  we  have  no  need  to  disparage  ethical  prin- 
ciples and  those  who  strive  to  regulate  their  lives  by 
them ;  but  the  very  meaning  of  the  Gospel  is  that  we 
have  more  than  ethical  principles,  however  true  and 
lofty,  to  look  to.  We  have  the  passion  of  the  Son  of 
God.  I  had  rather  preach  with  a  crucifix  in  my  hand 
and  the  feeblest  power  of  moral  reflection,  than  have  the 
finest  insight  into  ethical  principles  and  no  Son  of  God 
who  came  by  blood.  It  is  the  pierced  side,  the  thorn- 
crowned  brow,  the  rent  hands  and  feet,  that  make  us 
Christians — these,  and  not  our  profoundest  thoughts 
about  the  ethical  constitution  of  the  universe.  "  I  write 
unto  you,  little  children,"  says  the  author  of  this  epistle, 
"  because  your  sins  are  forgiven  you."  Where  does 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  come  from  ?  Is  there  any 
ethical  principle  from  which  it  can  be  deduced  ?  Are 
there  any  fine  ideas  or  combinations  of  ideas  from 
which  we  can  derive  the  assurance  that  there  is  in 
God — not  in  idea  but  in  reality — a  love  more  wonder- 
ful and  powerful  than  sin,  a  love  that  bears  it  in  all  its 
crushing  weight,  and  enables  us  to  triumph  over  it? 
No,  it  is  no  principle  or  idea  which  yields  an  assur- 
ance like  that.  ''Your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for  His 
names  sake.''  It  is  through  the  passion  of  the  Son  of 
God,  through  the  death  that  He  died  on  the  cross, 
and  through  nothing  less  awfully  real,  that  such  assur- 
ance establishes  itself  in  the  heart. 

Sometimes,  again,  it  is  not  philosophers  but  histor- 
ians who  lapse  in  this  unfortunate  direction.  We  are 
all  familiar  with  what  is  known  as  historical  criticism, 
and  especially  with  its  application  to  Scripture.  We 
know  that  it  has  affected  our  estimate  of  many  things, 
and  that  it  has  been  attended  in  the  Church  with  much 

10 


146  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

alarm  and  apprehensiveness  as  to  its  results.  There 
is  one  way  of  meeting  this  situation — one  way  of  at- 
tempting to  soothe  the  apprehensions  of  timid  Chris- 
tians— with  which  also  we  are  famiHar,  but  which  needs 
to  be  more  seriously  thought  of  in  the  light  of  this 
text.  How  often  we  hear  it  said,  ''  All  this  nervous- 
ness and  anxiety  about  the  results  of  criticism  is  beside 
the  mark.  It  is  quite  true  that  everything  which 
claims  to  be  historical  is  subject  to  criticism,  and  that 
any  alleged  historical  fact  may  prove  unable  to  stand 
critical  tests  ;  but  why  should  anyone  be  spiritually 
perturbed  for  that  ?  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  religion. 
Facts  and  faith  move  on  different  planes.  They  never 
touch.  We  may  come  to  any  conclusion  whatever 
about  facts  without  making  the  smallest  difference  to 
faith.  Faith  stands  on  its  own  basis.  It  does  not  de- 
pend on  facts ;  it  can  assert  itself  in  despite  of  them. 
It  is  sheer  unbelief  which  inspires  these  fears."  What 
are  we  to  say  to  this  line  of  argument  ? 

If  we  agree  with  the  Apostle  we  must  say  that  it  is 
false.  The  Christian  religion,  as  he  at  least  understood 
it,  was  not  this  pure  and  sublimated  spirituality  to 
which  facts  are  indifferent.  Nor  is  it  so  to  Christians 
in  general.  It  is  saying  little  to  say  that  the  specious 
consolation  just  described  never  consoled  anyone  who 
was  really  alarmed.  Indeed  to  most  people  it  is  so 
far  from  bringing  consolation  that  they  feel  it  is  adding 
insult  to  injury.  A  sound  instinct  tells  them  what  it 
means.  It  means  that  faith  henceforth  is  to  have  the 
reality  of  ideas — of  high  and  noble  convictions  or 
aspirations  of  our  own — but  not  the  reality  of  blood. 
And  such  faith,  they  know,  is  not  real  enough  to 
overcome  the  world.     We  do  not  need  to  say  that  it 


REALITY  IN  REVELATION  147 

is  atheism,  but  neither  is  it  faith  in  God  through 
Him. 

In  true  Christianity,  everything  depends  on  the 
facts — on  Jesus  Christ  who  came  by  water  and  blood  ; 
not  with  the  water  only,  but  with  the  water  and  the 
blood.  Our  sound  course  is,  not  to  say  that  no  matter 
what  comes  of  the  facts  the  Christian  faith  is  secure, 
but  to  point  out  the  entire  security  of  the  facts  on  which 
that  faith  reposes.  Consider,  for  example,  the  eviden- 
tial value  of  the  sacraments  as  it  is  suggested  by  this 
very  passage.  There  is  nothing  in  Christianity  more 
primitive  than  the  sacraments.  They  were  celebrated 
universally  in  the  Church  before  any  part  of  the  New 
Testament  was  written,  and  they  still  bear  unequivo- 
cal witness  to  Him  who  came  in  the  water  and  in  the 
blood.  Every  one  of  the  countless  millions  who  from 
the  day  of  Pentecost  to  this  day  has  been  baptized  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  is  a  witness  to  the  baptism  of  Jesus 
Himself,  to  His  experience  at  the  Jordan  and  its  sequel 
in  His  Spirit-filled  life.  Every  one  who  since  the  night 
on  which  He  was  betrayed  has  eaten  the  bread  and 
drunk  of  the  cup  in  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  witness  to 
the  reality  of  His  Passion.  These  things  cannot  be 
shaken,  and  it  is  absurd  to  speak  of  them  as  if  they 
could  be,  and  leave  our  faith  secure.  Without  them 
it  could  never  have  come  into  being,  and  would 
speedily  cease  to  be.  Without  a  historical  foundation 
as  real  as  life  and  death,  preaching  is  vain  and  faith  is 
vain  :  there  is  not  a  love  of  God  known  to  us  on  which 
we  can  lean  as  Christians  have  leaned  hitherto  on  the 
passion  of  their  Lord. 

2.  Let  us  turn  now  to  the  other  aspect  of  the  truth  : 
the  reality  of  our  response  to  God's  love  as  manifested 


148  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

in  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus.  Such  love  claims  an 
answer  in  kind.  There  must  be  an  intensity  in  the 
religion  corresponding  to  that  of  the  revelation  :  there 
must  be  the  reality  of  blood  in  both. 

Every  reader  of  the  Gospel  knov^s  that  nothing  is 
so  abhorrent  to  Jesus  as  a  Laodicean  attitude  on  the 
part  of  disciples.  When  He  v^as  on  His  way  to  Jeru- 
salem, Luke  tells  us,  "great  multitudes  followed  Him  ; 
and  He  turned,  and  said  unto  them,  If  any  man  come 
to  Me,  and  hate  not  his  father  and  mother  and  wife 
and  children  and  brethren  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own 
life  also,  he  cannot  be  My  disciple  ".  It  was  as  though 
it  tried  His  patience  beyond  endurance  to  be  attended 
by  multitudes  who  could  not  find  it  in  their  hearts  to 
answer  His  passion  with  any  corresponding  passion  of 
their  own.  He  was  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  die,  and 
they  were  going  up  to  gaze,  perhaps  to  admire  or  to 
applaud,  certainly  not  to  share  His  cross.  It  is  at  the 
close  of  this  passage  that  He  says  to  these  insipid  fol- 
lowers, "  Salt  is  good ;  but  if  the  salt  have  lost  its 
savour,  wherewith  shall  it  be  seasoned  ?  It  is  neither 
fit  for  the  land  nor  yet  for  the  dunghill :  men  cast  it 
out.  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."  What 
is  salt  ?  What  is  the  saline  property  in  human  character 
which  makes  it  valuable  and  serviceable  to  Jesus,  and 
the  want  of  which  makes  Him  pronounce  on  men  the 
appalling  sentence — *'good  for  nothing"?  It  is  the 
power  of  self-denial,  of  doing  violence  to  nature  and 
its  impulses,  of  meeting  the  passion  of  Christ  with 
responsive  passion,  of  giving  blood  for  blood.  If  it  is 
not  in  men  to  do  this,  even  in  presence  of  the  cross, 
Christ  declares  them  **  not  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  ". 
It  follows  from  this  that  no  deliberate  seeking  of  a 


REALITY  IN  REVELATION  149 

sheltered  life  is  truly  Christian.  The  Son  of  God  came 
in  blood.  He  faced  the  world  as  it  was,  the  hour  and 
the  power  of  darkness  ;  He  laid  down  life  itself  in  pur- 
suance of  His  calling;  and  there  must  be  something 
answering  to  this  in  a  life  which  is  genuinely  Christian. 
Yet  we  cannot  help  seeing  that  in  different  ways 
this  conclusion  is  practically  evaded.  It  is  evaded  by 
those  who  aim  at  cultivating  the  Christian  life  solely 
in  coteries,  cliques,  and  conventions  of  like-minded 
people  ;  by  those  whose  spiritual  concern  is  all  directed 
inward,  and  whose  ideal  is  rather  the  sanctification  of 
the  soul  than  the  consecration  of  life  to  Christ.  There 
are  so  few  people  who  make  holiness  in  any  sense 
whatever  the  chief  end  of  life  that  one  shrinks  from 
saying  anything  which  might  reflect  on  those  who  do 
pursue  it,  even  in  a  mistaken  sense ;  but  who  has  not 
known  promising  characters  fade  away  and  become 
characterless,  through  making  this  mistake?  Who 
does  not  know  how  easy  it  is  to  miss  the  Gospel  type, 
the  type  of  Jesus,  and  actually  to  present  to  the  world, 
as  though  with  his  stamp  upon  it,  a  character  insipid, 
ineffective,  bloodless?  Nothing  has  a  right  to  bear 
His  name  that  is  not  proved  amid  the  actualities  of  life 
to  have  a  passion  in  it  like  His  own.  But  far  oftener 
than  by  any  mistaken  idea  of  sanctification  is  Christ's 
claim  for  reality  in  religion  evaded  by  mere  selfishness. 
In  how  many  homes  is  life  narrowed  to  the  circle  of 
the  domestic  affections,  and  how  often  precisely  such 
homes  are  thought  of  as  among  the  happiest  triumphs 
of  the  Christian  religion  !  No  one  need  undervalue  the 
domestic  affections  :  they  are  among  the  dearest  and 
best  gifts  of  God  to  man.  But  if  life  is  shut  up  within 
them,  as  it  often  is,  then  no  matter  how  amiable,  how 


ISO  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

refined,  how  pure,  how  happy  they  may  be,  it  is  a 
bloodless  life.  In  many  a  happy  family,  which  would 
be  amazed  to  hear  itself  spoken  of  as  unchristian,  the 
conflicts  of  the  world  are  ignored.  The  Lord's  battle 
is  going  on  all  around  it  against  pride,  sensuality, 
greed,  drunkenness,  spurious  patriotism  ;  and  they  are 
not  in  it.  There  is  no  real  response  in  their  lives  to 
that  which  Jesus  was,  did,  and  suffered.  But  He  came 
by  blood;  He  longs  to  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul ; 
and  there  is  nothing  to  satisfy  soul-travail  in  the  blame- 
less happy  life  of  many  so-called  Christian  homes. 
Their  religion  may  be  real,  but  it  is  not  real  enough 
for  Him ;  it  has  no  passion  in  it  answering  to  the  Pas- 
sion of  the  Son  of  God  who  came  in  blood. 

I  can  understand  anyone  seeing  both  aspects  of  the 
truth  on  which  we  have  been  dwelling,  and  che  corre- 
spondence of  the  one  to  the  other,  and  yet  feeling 
unable  to  realize  their  connexion  in  experience.  "  I 
can  see  the  passion  of  Jesus,  and  I  acknowledge  that  it 
should  evoke  a  responsive  passion  in  me,  but  it  does 
not.  It  is  too  far  away.  I  apprehend  it  as  a  fact,  but 
somehow  it  does  not  operate  as  a  motive.  Why  is 
this,  and  what  ought  I  to  do  ?  "  The  answer  to  such 
questions,  I  believe,  is  suggested  by  the  next  words  of 
the  Apostle  :  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  be- 
cause the  Spirit  is  the  truth  ".  There  is  a  point  of 
mystery  in  all  religion — not  the  point  at  which  we 
know  nothing,  but  the  point  at  which  we  know  every- 
thing and  yet  nothing  happens — the  point  at  which  we 
are  cast  absolutely  on  God.  But  the  mention  of  the 
Spirit  reminds  us  that  though  the  Christian  experience 
depends  absolutely  upon  God,  it  is  not  for  that  reason 
blankly  mysterious.    The  Spirit  is  a  witness ;  he  takes 


REALITY  IN  REVELATION  151 

the  things  of  Christ  and  shows  them  to  us,  and  under 
his  showing  they  become  present,  real,  and  powerful. 
This  is  his  work — to  make  the  past  present,  the  his- 
torical eternal,  the  inert  vital.  When  the  Spirit  comes, 
Christ  is  with  us  in  all  the  reality  of  His  life  and  Pas- 
sion, and  our  hearts  answer  to  His  testimony.  We 
read  the  Gospel,  and  we  do  not  say,  He  spoke  these 
words  of  grace  and  truth,  but  He  speaks  them.  We 
do  not  say.  He  received  sinners  and  ate  with  them ; 
but.  He  receives  sinners  and  spreads  a  table  for 
them.  We  do  not  say.  He  prayed  for  His  own ;  but. 
He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us.  We  do 
not  even  say,  He  came  in  blood ;  but.  He  is  here, 
clothed  in  His  crimson  robe,  in  the  power  of  His  Pas- 
sion, mighty  to  save.  Have  we  not  had  this  witness  of 
the  Spirit  on  days  we  can  recall  ?  Have  we  not  had  it 
in  listening  to  the  word  of  God  this  very  day  ?  We 
know  what  it  is  to  grieve  the  Spirit;  we  know  also 
what  it  is  to  open  our  hearts  to  Him.  Let  us  be  ready 
always  to  open  our  hearts  to  His  testimony  to  the  Son 
of  God — to  Jesus  Christ  who  came  with  the  water  and 
with  the  blood ;  and  as  the  awful  reality  of  the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  is  sealed  upon  them,  let  us  make  answer 
to  it  in  a  love  which  has  all  the  reality  of  our  own 
nature  in  it. 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY.^ 

"Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not 
love,  I  am  become  a  sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  And 
though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy  and  understand  all  mysteries 
and  all  knowledge,  and  though  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could 
remove  mountains,  and  have  not  love,  I  am  nothing.  And  though 
I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though  I  give  my 
body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing." — 
I  Corinthians  xiii.  1-3. 

The  persons  to  whom  these  words  were  addressed 
were  full  of  what  may  be  called  Christian  ambitions. 
They  coveted  what  they  reckoned  Christian  gifts  ;  the 
Church  of  Christ  was  for  them  a  stage  on  which  they 
aspired  to  be  conspicuous  figures.  The  Apostle  has 
their  correction  in  view  when  he  writes,  "  Covet  ear- 
nestly the  best  gifts,  and  yet  show  I  unto  you  a  more 
excellent  way  ".  It  is  literally  a  way  in  the  superlative 
degree — via  maxime  vialis,  as  Bengel  renders  it — a  way 
having  in  perfection  all  the  qualities  which  ought  to 
characterize  a  way  ;  a  way  open  to  every  one,  unob- 
structed, leading  straight  to  the  goal  of  Christian 
greatness.  This  is  the  way  of  love  which  he  proceeds 
to  celebrate. 

It  has  been  finely  remarked  that  the  Apostle  illus- 
trates in  his  very  first  words  the  lesson  he  wishes  to 
teach  :  "  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of 

1  This  sermon  has  already  appeared  in  "  The  Expository  Times," 
and  is  printed  by  the  kind  permission  of  Messrs.  T.  and  T.  Clark. 

(152) 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  153 

angels  and  have  not  love."  An  unloving  spirit  would 
have  said  :  **  Though  you  speak  with  the  tongues  of 
men  and  of  angels,"  and  made  the  Corinthians,  not 
himself,  represent  the  bad  example.  The  instinctive 
courtesy  of  the  Apostle  is  inspired  by  love  and  shows 
how  thoroughly  he  himself  has  learned  his  lesson. 
The  simplest  way  in  which  we  can  enter  into  his 
thought  is  to  make  clear  to  ourselves  what  the  gifts 
are  which  are  sometimes  supposed  to  supersede  love, 
but  which  really  depend  upon  it  for  their  value  in  the 
Church. 

The  gift  of  tongues  was  an  emotional  gift.     It  was 
an  ecstasy  of  feehng  by  which  men  were  carried  away, 
and  broke  into  rapturous  inarticulate  utterances.    The 
sublime  realities  of  the  Christian  faith — God,  Christ, 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  assurance  of  immortality 
— as  they  broke  into  the  common  life  of  man,  disturbed 
its  equihbrium  profoundly.     Nature  rocked  under  the 
impact  of  the  supernatural  as  a  boat  rocks  in  the  water 
when  a  heavy  weight  is  suddenly  thrown  into  it.    This 
emotional  disturbance,  though  in  some  ways  incalcul- 
able, seems  always  to  have  had  one  character.     It  was 
an  ecstasy  of  praise.     Those  who  were  carried  away 
by  it  uttered  in  this  transport  of  feeling  the  wonderful 
works  of  God.    What  they  expected  when  the  impetus 
had  subsided  was  an  Amen  at  their  giving  of  thanks. 
A  modern  musician  has  written  songs  without  words  : 
this  is  a  very  apt  description  for  the  peculiar  kind  of 
spiritual  emotion  called  in  the  New  Testament  speak- 
ing with  tongues.     Probably  the  nearest  approach  to 
it  most  Christians  make  is  when  they  are  carried  away 
by  the  feeling  of  a  revival  meeting.     Many  can  still  re- 
member the  revival  of  1874,  when  Mr.  Moody  first  came 


154  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

to  this  country.  Like  most  revivals,  it  lived  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  praise  :  the  first  edition  of  Mr.  Sankey's 
"  Sacred  Songs  and  Solos "  came  along  w^ith  it,  and 
the  American  organ.  Everybody  sang  these  hymns 
and  sang  them  everywhere.  The  largest  churches  and 
halls  were  crowded  out  for  months  by  multitudes  sur- 
rendering themselves  to  the  emotion.  The  words  and 
the  tunes — perhaps  in  some  cases  the  tunes  even  more 
than  the  words — sang  themselves  into  people's  ears, 
into  their  very  nerves  and  brain.  They  heard  the 
rhythm  of  them  through  the  beating  of  machinery  or 
the  noisy  traffic  of  the  streets.  They  heard  it  as  they  sat 
over  their  Bibles  at  home.  They  felt  like  singing  all 
the  time.  The  church  was  full  of  men  who  floated,  so 
to  speak,  on  this  wave  of  emotion  ;  an  unutterable  joy 
in  the  redeeming  love  of  God  seemed  to  sustain  their 
life  ;  it  was  full,  as  they  would  have  said  in  the  early 
days,  of  people  speaking  with  tongues. 

This  is  an  experience  which  many  make  light  of  and 
even  deprecate  ;  they  do  not  speak  with  tongues,  and 
they  do  not  want  to.  But  this  is  not  how  it  is  regarded 
by  the  Apostle.  He  knew  as  well  as  any  modern 
moralist  that  the  promise  of  the  new  emotion  is  not 
always  fulfilled.  He  knew  that  the  equilibrium  of  the 
old  nature  which  had  been  momentarily  disturbed  by 
the  sense  of  Christian  realities  w^as  too  easily  restored 
at  the  old  level,  and  that  men  who  had  spoken  with 
tongues  might  relapse  and  become  "sensual,  not  hav- 
ing the  spirit  ".  But  in  itself  this  emotional  suscepti- 
bility to  spiritual  realities  is  good.  **  I  thank  my  God," 
says  the  Apostle,  "that  I  speak  with  tongues  more 
than  you  all " ;  I  am  more  open  than  any  of  you  to 
this   access    of  feeling   which    rises  to    unintelligible 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  155 

rapture.  No  one  who  has  had  in  a  time  of  revival  the 
experience  described  above,  no  one  who  feels  his  heart 
beat  quicker  and  his  sympathies  kindle  as  the  refrain  of 
a  gospel  hymn  takes  possession  of  his  ear  and  his  soul, 
will  disagree  with  him.  But  good  as  this  emotional 
susceptibility  is,  gift  of  God  as  it  is,  it  is  not  good  if 
it  terminates  in  itself.  It  is  not  good  if  a  man  boasts 
of  it,  and  judges  on  the  strength  of  it  those  whose 
experience  he  does  not  appreciate  and  cannot  under- 
stand. The  ecstatic  praise  which  is  exhausted  in 
utterance,  the  feeling  which  is  exhausted  in  being  felt, 
is  in  one  aspect  a  kind  of  self-indulgence.  It  cannot 
be  the  be-all  and  the  end-all  of  the  Gospel.  Taken  by 
itself,  it  is  no  more  than  sounding  brass  or  clanging 
cymbal,  those  deafening  empty  noises  with  which  the 
Corinthians  w^ere  familiar  even  in  pagan  worship.  It 
is  not  the  steam  which  is  blown  off  with  a  loud  noise, 
and  is  visible  for  a  moment  in  dense  white  clouds, 
which  drives  the  engine  ;  it  is  the  steam  in  the  boiler, 
which  is  subject  to  intense  pressure,  and  is  neither 
heard  nor  seen.  Thank  God  for  every  Christian 
emotion,  the  Apostle  says,  but  ask  earnestly,  persist- 
ently, and  devoutly  how  it  is  to  tell  for  the  common 
good.  **  The  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given  to 
every  one  \.o  p7'ofit  ivithal,''  and  the  question  on  which 
everything  turns  is  :  What  service  is  being  done,  by 
these  prized  exaltations  of  mine,  to  the  Church  which 
is  the  body  of  Christ  ?  For  what  ministries  of  love  do 
they  furnish  the  driving  power  ? 

From  emotional  the  Apostle  advances  to  intellectual 
gifts:  ''though  I  have  prophecy,  and  understand  all 
mysteries  and  all  knowledge".  I  say  advances,  inten- 
tionally, for  this  is  what  he  means.     The  uncontrol- 


156  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

lable  emotion  called  speaking  with  tongues  is  no  doubt 
a  spiritual  gift,  when  it  is  Christian  realities  which 
stimulate  it,  but  it  is  the  most  elementary  of  spiritual 
gifts.  It  is  the  new  life,  indeed,  but  in  a  turbid  semi- 
sensuous  form,  a  form  which  is  transcended  when  the 
Christian  realities  not  only  excite  emotion  but  take 
possession  of  intelligence.  It  is  not  only  inevitable 
but  right  that  they  should  do  so,  and  do  it  with  de- 
cisive power.  The  world  with  Christ  and  redemption 
in  it — the  world  in  which  the  Son  of  God  and  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  and  eternal  glory  are  real  things — 
is  another  world.  It  makes  another  appeal  to  the  in- 
telligence, excites  other  reflections,  demands  other 
interpretations,  reveals  other  prospects.  All  former 
philosophies  are  cashiered  when  the  realities  of  the 
Christian  revelation  come  within  the  horizon  of 
thought.  The  intellect  which  submits  to  the  impact 
of  the  Gospel  receives  a  shock  as  startling  and 
momentous  as  that  which  raises  the  emotions  to 
ecstasy  ;  the  mind  of  man  is  born  again  under  the  su- 
preme revelation  of  God.  It  gets  an  understanding  of 
the  world  and  of  all  God's  ways  with  it  and  purposes 
in  it  undreamt  of  before.  As  St.  Paul  says  here,  it 
gets  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  all  mysteries  and  all 
knowledge  are  thrown  open  to  it. 

Probably  no  one  ever  had  a  more  vivid  experience 
of  this  than  the  writer  of  this  epistle.  If  any  man  ever 
had  his  mind  born  again  and  his  world  made  new  in  a 
great  experience  it  was  he.  The  enthusiasm,  the  in- 
toxication, as  it  has  been  called,  of  the  great  specu- 
lative geniuses  like  Plato  and  Spinoza,  who  have  tried 
to  set  this  unintelligible  world  in  an  intelligible  light 
before  our  eyes,  is  cold  compared  to  the  ardour  with 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  157 

which  Paul  reconstructs  his  universe  with  Christ  for 
its  Alpha  and  Omega,  its  principle  and  goal.  **  In 
Him,"  he  has  the  exaltation  of  mind  to  write,  "were 
all  things  created,  that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  on 
earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones  or 
dominions  or  principalities  or  powers ;  all  things  were 
created  by  Him  and  for  Him,  and  He  is  before  all 
things,  and  in  Him  all  things  are  one."  The  man  who 
was  capable  of  thinking  and  saying  this  did  not  under- 
value the  intellect  and  its  use  in  the  Christian  life. 
He  felt  it  essential  even  to  his  self-respect  to  have  a 
Christian  view  of  God  and  the  world,  a  Christian 
philosophy  or  theology ;  he  felt  the  value  of  being 
initiated  into  the  ultimate  truth,  of  seeing  the  world  in 
Divine  Christian  light — for  that  is  what  is  meant  by 
having  "prophecy,  mysteries,  and  knowledge";  but 
he  felt  also  that  no  attainments  in  this  direction  touched 
the  centre  any  more  than  the  emotional  excitement  of 
tongues.  Without  love,  to  make  the  intellectual  Chris- 
tian the  servant  of  the  ignorant ;  without  love,  to  keep 
the  intellectual  from  being  wise  in  his  own  conceit ; 
without  love,  to  check  the  intellectual  when  he  is 
tempted  to  despise  others,  to  restrain  him  when  he 
would  use  his  power  to  intimidate  others  or  to  estab- 
lish a  selfish  ascendancy  over  them,  knowledge  is 
nothing.  All  mysteries  may  be  open  to  a  man — he 
may  have  the  profoundest  insight  into  the  manifold 
wisdom  of  God — he  may  see  the  meaning,  the  methods, 
the  issues  of  God's  working  in  the  world  in  a  way 
which  makes  darkness  light  and  crooked  things 
straight ;  but  without  love,  it  does  not  count. 

Most  Christians,  probably,  at  some  time  or  other, 
have  touched  experimentally  on  speaking  with  tongues, 


158  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

but  one  cannot  be  so  sure  about  prophecies  and  mys- 
teries and  knowledge.  The  daring  of  New  Testament 
thought  in  its  interpretation  of  all  things  in  the  light 
of  Christ  can  hardly  be  said  to  survive  in  the  Church. 
A  great  philosophical  theologian,  a  man  who  could 
search  with  the  light  of  revelation  the  world  known 
to  us  as  Paul  searched  and  read  with  the  same  light 
the  world  known  to  his  generation,  is  one  of  the  crying 
wants  of  the  time.  What  we  have  to  lament  is  not 
that  people  overvalue  knowledge  in  comparison  with 
love,  or  that  they  set  too  much  store  on  Christian  in- 
sight into  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  world,  but 
that  they  have  no  interest  at  all  in  the  intellectual  con- 
struction and  application  of  Christianity.  Their  minds 
have  not  been  sufficiently  stimulated  by  the  Christian 
revelation  to  want  any  new  view  of  the  world  in  the 
light  of  it.  But  extremes  meet,  and  the  lesson  of  the 
Apostle  at  this  point  is  curiously  applicable  to  a  kind  of 
petrified  intellectualism  which  is  to  be  found  in  all 
churches.  There  are  always  those  to  whom  Christian- 
ity is  pre-eminently  a  kind  of  knowledge,  a  system  of 
truth  or  rather  of  truths.  It  means  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  or  of  the  creed,  or  of  some  outhne  of  Christian 
ideas  in  which  they  have  been  brought  up.  They  have 
a  zeal  for  this,  and  they  are  moved  by  what  calls  it  in 
question  as  they  are  by  nothing  else.  The  ideal  Chris- 
tian for  them  is  the  defender  of  the  faith,  Mr.  Valiant 
for  the  truth.  It  does  not  perhaps  occur  to  them  that 
this  is  the  type  of  intellectualism  which  is  most  likely  to 
be  loveless.  But  much  as  he  admired  the  character, 
Bunyan  knew  its  perils  when  he  told  how  Mr.  Valiant 
for  the  Truth  was  assailed  by  Wildhead,  Inconsiderate^ 
and  Pragmatical.     What  a  figure  these  rogues  would 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  159 

cut  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians. 
The  curious  thing  is  that  the  intellectual  Christian,  or 
rather  the  man  who  champions  a  truth  which  is  no 
longer  living  but  only  in  possession  of  legal  authority, 
is  apt  to  imagine  that  they  are  allies,  not  enemies,  and 
that  he  can  enhst  them  all  to  fight  the  Lord's  battle. 
They  are  in  reality  the  vices,  and  how  often  the  uncon- 
sciously cherished  vices,  of  the  degenerate  intellectual 
without  love. 

The  Apostle  becomes  more  venturesome  and  para- 
doxical as  he  goes  on  to  ever  higher  gifts.  **  Though 
I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and 
have  not  love,  I  am  nothing."  Faith  here  is  not  used 
in  the  general  sense  of  that  trust  in  Jesus  which  makes 
a  man  a  Christian ;  it  is  a  specific  spiritual  gift  operat- 
ing not  on  the  emotional  nor  on  the  intellectual  but 
on  the  practical  side  of  human  nature.  It  is  the  gift 
which  raises  Christian  efficiency  to  a  high  point.  The 
consequences  of  inefficiency  are  so  miserable  and  de- 
pressing that  it  is  no  w^onder  this  gift  is  highly  valued. 
What  is  of  so  much  value  to  the  Church  as  that  it 
should  have  men  in  it  who  in  spite  of  obstacles  can  do 
what  needs  to  be  done  ?  not  men  who  say  what  they 
ought  to  say,  and  then  nothing  happens,  but  men  who 
positively  achieve  things,  men  who  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties at  which  others  helplessly  gaze.  If  anyone 
prized  this  practical  Christian  efficiency  it  was  Paul, 
who  was  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  it  himself,  and 
who  often  sought  it  in  vain  in  his  associates ;  yet  not 
even  this  is  the  vital  thing  in  the  Christian  Hfe.  We 
can  almost  think  that  as  he  wrote  these  words  about 
the  power  of  faith  Paul  had  in  his  mind  not  only  the 
saying  of  Jesus  about  bidding  the  mountain  remove 


i6o  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

and  be  cast  into  the  sea,  but  the  solemn  words  at  the 
close  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "  Many  shall  say 
unto  Me  in  that  day,  Lord,   Lord,  have  we  not  pro- 
phesied in  Thy  name,  and  in  Thy  name  cast  out  devils, 
and  in  Thy  name    done  many  mighty  works?"     It 
might  well  seem  incomprehensible  that  spiritual  powers 
should  be  wielded,  and  spiritual  efficiency  in  a  supreme 
degree  exhibited,  by  men  whom   Jesus   rejects ;  but 
Paul  felt  the  truth  theG:e  was  in  it,  and  so  may  we. 
The  efficient  man  may  lose  himself  in  his  very  effici- 
ency ;  the  sense  may  steal  upon  his  mind  that  he  is 
the  really  powerful  preacher,  that  his  is  the  command- 
ing personality  to  which  reluctant  circumstances  yield, 
his  the  practical  capacity  which  gets  the  belt  upon  the 
wheel  and  transmits  force  and  sees  that  work  is  done ; 
and  when  this  happens,  all  is  lost.     For  Christianity 
is  not  in  this  region  of  outward  efficiency  after  all ;  it 
is  in  the  soul.    A  man  may  be  a  great  Christian  worker, 
as  we  say,  and  no  saint.     He  may  do  distinguished 
service  to  the  Church,  and  have  neither  part  nor  lot 
in  the   kingdom   of  God.     He  may  be  one  of  those 
who  at  their  departure  are  celebrated,  mourned,  and 
honoured  by  the  Church,  but  to  whom  the  Lord  says, 
*'  I  never  knew  you  ".    These  are  terrible  things  to  say, 
and  to  think,  but  when  we  are  dealing  with  love,  we 
are  always  on  the  verge  of  terrible  things.     What  can 
be  so  terrible  as  to  wound  love,  and  how  can  love  be 
wounded  more  terribly  than  by  offering  any  doings 
or  achievements  as  a  substitute  for  it  ? 

Emotional  gifts,  intellectual  gifts,  practical  gifts,  all 
are  vain  without  love.  Even  the  gift  which  most 
nearly  counterfeits  love  is  vain  also.  "Though  I 
bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though  I 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  i6i 

give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  pro- 
fiteth  me  nothing."  These,  v^e  might  say  again,  are 
the  very  things  we  can  conceive  the  Apostle  doing 
himself;  he  was  always  forward  to  care  for  the  poor; 
he  died  daily  at  his  work.  Certainly  he  did  not 
undervalue  the  capacity  for  sacrifice  or  the  practice  of 
it ;  but  he  is  putting  an  extreme  case,  and  where 
sacrifice  even  the  utmost  is  made  (as  it  may  conceivably 
be  made)  from  ostentation  or  ambition,  it  profits  no- 
thing. There  might  even  be  a  rivalry  in  philanthropy ; 
who  could  think  that  the  life  of  Christianity  lay  there  ? 
And  so  we  are  driven  back  by  the  Apostle  to  the 
superlative  way — the  way  which  is  a  way,  and  along 
which  we  can  really  make  Christian  progress.  Emotion 
has  its  value  when  excited  by  Christian  realities 
— so  has  intellect — so  has  energy — so  has  sacrifice; 
but  the  one  thing  needful  is  love.  It  is  only  when  love 
rules  the  use  of  gifts,  and  indeed  compels  us  to  use 
them  for  the  common  good,  that  they  can  properly  be 
called  Christian.  And  what  is  love  ?  A  great  theolo- 
gian has  defined  it  as  the  identification  of  ourselves 
with  God's  interest  in  others.  God  has  an  interest  in 
others.  There  is  something  in  all  men  which  is  dear 
to  Him,  to  which  His  love  is  pledged,  which  it  would 
grieve  Him  to  see  injured  or  frustrated.  Do  we 
realize  this,  and  that  the  question  whether  we  love  or 
not  can  only  be  answered  in  the  light  of  it  ?  Do  we 
realize  it  in  regard  to  those  who  are  nearest  and 
dearest  to  us — our  brothers  and  sisters,  our  sons  and 
daughters  ?  Do  we  realize  it  in  regard  to  those  who 
are  members  of  the  same  congregation  with  us,  or  of 
the  same  social  circle  ?  Is  there  anything  in  our  life 
which  would  not  be  there  but  for  the  sense  we  have 

II 


i62  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  God's  interest  in  others  ?  Could  we  point  to  any- 
one to  whom  we  have  ever  shown  the  kindness  of  God 
for  Jesus'  sake  ?  This  is  the  only  thing  which  is  love 
in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  term.  It  is  by  this  the 
Church  and  the  Christian  live,  and  without  it  they 
die.  To  identify  ourselves  with  God's  interest  in 
the  lives  of  others,  to  seek  that  God's  will  for  them 
may  be  fulfilled,  that  that  which  is  dear  to  Him  in 
them  may  be  saved,  to  put  what  we  are  and  have 
unselfishly  at  their  service  for  this  end  :  this  is  love. 
Is  there  any  such  good  thing  found  in  us  toward  God 
and  those  who  are  dear  to  Him  ? 

Now  what  the  theologian  defined  the  Apostle  de- 
scribes. He  pictures  for  us  in  a  glow  of  enthusiasm  the 
modes  in  which  love  manifests  itself  in  a  world  like  ours. 
No  doubt  when  he  wrote  his  description  of  love  he  had 
in  his  mind  those  phenomena  in  the  Corinthian  Church 
which  made  its  absence  sensible,  but  the  same  phenom- 
ena are  always  reappearing,  and  we  find  the  key  to 
his  picture  nearer  home.  "  Love  suffereth  long,  and  is 
kind  ;  love  envieth  not ;  love  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not 
puffed  up,  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly ;  seeketh 
not  her  own  ;  is  not  easily  provoked ;  thinketh  no  evil ; 
rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  with  the  truth  ; 
beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things."  Is  there  anything  in  us,  when  the 
contemplation  of  this  picture  has  made  us  penitent, 
which  can  claim  any  kinship  with  it?  It  is  not  our 
likeness,  we  know  that;  but  is  there  something  in  us 
which  draws  us  inevitably  and  instinctively  towards 
it,  which  makes  us  feel  that  it  should  be  our  likeness, 
and  that  it  would  be,  if  we  yielded  to  the  constraint 
of  the  love  of  God  ?     If  there  is  even  this  that  remains, 


THE  SUPERLATIVE  WAY  163 

let  us  strengthen  it  and  not  suffer  it  to  die.  The  great- 
est part  of  our  perfection,  as  Robert  Bruce  says,  is  to 
thirst  for  perfection — to  look  on  this  picture  with 
humble  longing  hearts  till  we  begin  to  grow  like  it. 

But  we  ought  not  to  say,  to  look  on  this  picture. 
For  what  the  theologian  defines  and  the  Apostle  de- 
picts is  illustrated  and  embodied  in  our  Lord  Himself, 
and  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  look  at  Him.  **  Herein 
is  love."  We  do  not  know  what  love  is  till  we  see  it 
in  Jesus,  and  when  we  see  it  there  we  see  Him  identi- 
fying Himself  with  God's  interest  in  us.  The  revela- 
tion is  not  only  made  before  our  eyes,  it  is  made  with 
special  reference  to  ourselves.  In  Christ's  presence  we 
are  not  the  spectators  of  love  only,  we  are  its  objects. 
Christ  exhibits  towards  men,  He  exhibits  towards  us, 
that  wonderful  goodness  which  Paul  describes.  When 
we  think  what  our  life  has  been,  and  what  has  been 
His  attitude  to  us  from  first  to  last,  do  we  not  say, 
"  Our  Lord  suffers  long,  and  is  kind ;  He  is  not  easily 
provoked  ;  He  does  not  impute  to  us  our  evil.  Where 
we  are  concerned,  where  God's  interest  in  us  is  con- 
cerned. He  bears  all  things,  He  believes  all  things.  He 
hopes  all  things.  He  endures  all  things."  These  are 
the  thoughts,  or  rather  these  are  the  experiences,  out 
of  which  love  is  born  in  our  hearts.  We  love,  because 
He  first  loved  us  All  the  time  it  is  His  love  which 
must  inspire  ours.  "  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another, 
for  love  is  of  God,  and  every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of 
God  and  knoweth  God.  He  that  loveth  not  knoweth 
not  God,  for  God  is  love." 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR. 

"  Now  there  was  a  certain  rich  man,  and  he  was  c  othed  in  purple  and 
fine  linen,  faring  sumptuously  every  day  ;  and  a  certain  beggar 
named  Lazarus  was  laid  at  his  gate." — Luke  xvi.  19  ff. 

Many  of  the  words  of  Jesus  are  best  understood  when 
least  explained.  They  are  true  in  the  immediate  im- 
pression they  make  upon  the  mind  of  a  child,  and  if 
we  could  only  become  as  little  children  and  recover  it, 
this  is  the  only  truth  they  are  intended  to  convey. 
The  story  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus — the  evangelist 
does  not  call  it  a  parable — is  a  case  in  point.  In  the 
minds  of  many  grown-up  readers  it  raises  only  irrele- 
vant questions — questions  which  it  does  not  raise  for 
the  simple,  and  which  it  is  not  intended  to  answer. 
In  what  condition  does  the  soul  survive  this  life  ?  Is 
its  condition  fixed  at  or  by  death  ?  Is  there  a  further 
probation  for  those  who  have  failed  here,  or  who  have 
never  had  a  chance  ?  Is  the  departed  soul  shut  up  in 
itself,  in  absolute  loneliness,  or  can  it  communicate 
with  God  or  with  other  spirits  in  that  world  or  in 
this  ?  I  do  not  say  these  are  not  natural  questions, 
but  they  are  not  questions  with  which  Jesus  is  here 
directly  concerned,  and  to  seek  answers  for  them  here 
is  precarious. 

When  we  survey  the  Gospel  according  to  Luke  as  a 
whole,  we  see  that  one  of  the  main  interests  of  the 
evangelist  is  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about  riches  and 

(164) 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     165 

poverty.  This  was  so  characteristic  of  our  Lord  and 
so  emphatic  that  no  one  telhng  the  story  of  His  Hfe 
could  possibly  miss  it,  yet  Luke  has  preserved  a  good 
deal  which  the  other  evangelists  have  overlooked.  It 
is  he  alone  who  tells  us  that  Jesus  opened  His  ministry 
at  Nazareth  by  applying  to  Himself  the  text,  "He  hath 
sent  Me  to  preach  glad  tidings  to  the  poor;''  he  alone 
who  gives  the  first  beatitude  in  the  simple  form, 
"  Blessed  are  ye  poor,  for  ^^ours  is  the  kingdom  of 
God,"  and  who  adds  as  its  counterpart,  "  Woe  to  you 
that  are  ric/ij  for  ye  have  received  your  consolation  " ; 
it  is  he  alone  who  has  the  story  of  the  rich  man,  who 
said  to  himself,  "  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up 
for  many  years,  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be 
merry " ;  and  to  whom  God  said,  "  Thou  fool,  this 
night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee  ".  And  finally, 
it  is  he  alone  who  has  the  story  of  the  unjust  steward 
who  shrewdly  used  his  master's  money  to  buy  friends 
for  himself  who  would  give  him  the  shelter  of  their 
roofs  when  he  lost  his  place.  The  moral  of  this  shady 
story  is  daringly  put  by  our  Lord  Himself:  "And  I 
say  unto  you,  make  to  yourselves  friends  with  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness,  that  when  it  shall  fail 
they  may  receive  you  into  the  eternal  tabernacles". 
As  if  He  had  said,  "  You  are  going  to  lose  your  place 
too,  like  the  unjust  steward  :  be  as  sensible  as  he  was. 
Spend  your  vile  money  in  buying  friends — you  will 
need  them — who  can  bear  witness  to  you  and  welcome 
you  as  you  pass  from  this  world  to  the  other."  It  is  a 
daring  moral,  not  to  be  legally  interpreted  or  applied, 
but  with  living  power  in  it  for  those  who  are  will- 
ing to  take  it  as  it  is  meant.  Of  course  there  will  al- 
ways be  those  who  think  they  can  refute  it.     "The 


i66  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Pharisees,"  we  read  in  v.  i6,  ''who  were  lovers  of 
money,  derided  him."  They  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  a 
man  investmg  in  charity  with  the  dividend  in  his  mind 
which  he  would  draw  in  the  world  to  come.  It  is 
always  easy  to  misrepresent  when  you  do  not  want 
to  understand  ;  and  the  story  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus  is  the  answer  of  Jesus  to  those  who  scoffed 
at  the  moral  He  drew  from  the  unjust  steward.  It  is 
the  story  of  a  man  who  forgot  to  invest  in  charity  till 
it  was  too  late.  It  consists  of  a  visible  scene,  a  scene 
behind  the  veil,  and  an  appendix.  It  is  worth  while 
to  look  steadily  at  each,  and  then  to  summarize  the 
teaching  of  the  whole. 

I.  First  there  is  the  visible  situation  in  vv.  19-21. 
The  rich  man's  life  is  pictured  before  our  eyes  with 
all  its  indulgence  and  ostentation  :  he  was  clothed  in 
purple  and  fine  linen  and  fared  sumptuously  every 
day.  There  are  lives  like  this,  and  people  who  can 
afford  them.  There  is  nothing  they  cannot  buy — 
yachts,  motor-cars,  champagne,  pictures,  new  and  old 
books ;  no  wish  need  be,  and  no  wish  is  ungratified. 
There  is  no  needless  exaggeration  in  the  picture,  and 
not  a  touch  of  animosity  or  of  class  feeling.  It  is  not 
said  that  the  rich  man  made  his  money  unjustly,  still 
less  that  he  coined  it  out  of  the  sweat  of  Lazarus  ; 
his  way  of  living  is  exhibited — that  is  all.  Then  side 
by  side  with  him  we  have  the  picture  of  Lazarus.  It 
is  given  more  fully,  and  of  course  more  sympathetically, 
but  quite  as  impartially.  It  is  a  statement  of  facts 
and  nothing  more.  Lazarus  was  a  beggar  man,  whose 
body  was  covered  with  ulcers,  and  he  lay  at  the  rich 
man's  gate,  desiring  to  be  fed  with  the  crumbs  which 
fell  from  his  table.     What  is  meant  by  the  dogs  coming 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     167 

and  licking  his  sores  is  not  quite  plain.  Perhaps  the 
suggestion  is  that  even  the  offensive  animals  that 
roam  the  streets  of  eastern  towns  were  kinder  to  the 
poor  wretch  than  his  fellow  men  or  his  rich  neighbour  ; 
but  perhaps  it  is  meant  as  the  last  touch  of  aggravation 
to  his  misery :  these  unclean  beasts  rasped  his  sores 
and  he  had  not  the  strength  to  keep  them  at  a  distance. 
How  desperately  the  poor  man  needed  a  friend  !  Yes, 
but  not  so  desperately  as  the  rich.  What  an  oppor- 
tunity, Jesus  would  have  us  understand,  the  rich  man 
had  to  make  Lazarus  his  friend — to  buy  his  friendship 
with  some  of  his  miserable  money.  How  much  his 
friendship  would  have  been  worth  to  him  in  the 
future !  But  no  such  thing  happened.  The  rich  man 
was  there  in  his  purple  and  fine  linen  ;  the  beggar 
was  there  in  his  rags  and  sores  ;  and  that  is  the  whole 
story. 

Perhaps  under  the  influence  of  political  economy 
we  pity  a  little  the  rich  man  as  well  as  the  poor. 
Wesley  tells  us  somewhere  in  his  Journal  that  he  met 
a  man  who  proved  to  his  own  satisfaction  that  every 
one  who  could  afford  it  ought  to  wear  purple  and  fine 
linen  and  to  fare  sumptuously  every  day;  and  that  by 
doing  so  he  would  do  more  good  to  the  poor  than  if 
he  fed  the  hungry  and  clothed  the  naked.  Even  if  we 
have  not  an  unsolved  doubt  that  there  may  be  some- 
thing in  this,  we  have  a  lurking  sympathy  with  the 
rich  man  saying  to  himself,  "This  is  endless.  Re- 
lieve one  and  you  bring  ten.  This  man  is  a  product 
of  social  conditions  for  which  society  is  responsible, 
not  I ;  society  should  put  him  in  a  hospital  and  keep 
him  out  of  sight ;  and  if  the  hospital  were  put  on  the 
rates,   I   should  not  refuse  to  contribute  my  share." 


i68  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

But  the  very  point  of  the  story  is  that  Jesus  takes 
no  account  of  possible  explanations  or  excuses.  He 
deals  only  with  facts.  There  is  a  poor  man,  destitute 
and  in  misery,  at  a  rich  man's  gate,  and  nothing  is 
done.     Is  that  all  ? 

2.  No,  in  vv.  22-26  Jesus  goes  on  ito  unveil  the 
invisible  situation.  In  the  world  into  which  Lazarus 
and  the  rich  man  are  alike  ushered  by  death,  the  parts 
are  reversed.  It  is  now  Lazarus  who  feasts.  He 
reclines  on  Abraham's  bosom  at  the  heavenly  banquet, 
as  John  did  on  Jesus'  breast  at  the  Last  Supper.  It 
is  the  highest  conceivable  honour  and  felicity  for  a 
Jew.  But  the  rich  man  is  in  hell,  in  an  agony  of 
thirst,  tormented  in  flame.  And  there  is  something 
more  terrible  still.  We  are  not  told  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  story  whether  the  rich  man  had  seen 
Lazarus  at  his  door,  but  he  saw  him  now  afar  off. 
He  saw  him,  and  would  fain  have  had  him  as  a  friend. 
But  it  was  too  late.  He  had  his  chance  of  making 
Lazarus  his  friend  while  he  lay  at  his  gate,  but  he  did 
not  take  it  then,  and  it  would  never  come  back.  There 
is  something  inexpressibly  awful  in  the  words,  SoUy 
remember.  This  lost  soul,  too,  is  a  son  of  Abraham  : 
he  might  have  been  where  Lazarus  is;  nay,  he  ought 
to  have  been  there.  To  understand  why  he  is  not,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  past.  It  is  the  very 
misery  of  hell  to  remember  the  lost  opportunities  of 
life,  the  chances  that  were  given  but  not  taken  of 
winning  the  heaven  for  which  men  are  made.  Inex- 
pressibly awful,  too,  is  the  finality  implied  in  the 
words  :  **  between  us  and  you  there  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed'\  The  scene  in  the  invisible  world  represents 
God's  judgment  on  the  earlier  one,  and  against  that 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     169 

judgment  there  is  no  appeal.  This  is  to  all  eternity 
God's  verdict  on  such  things.  The  rich  man  may  have 
thought  little  or  nothing  about  Lazarus  while  they 
were  both  on  earth,  or  he  may  have  excused  himself 
from  doing  anything  for  him  by  the  kind  of  sophistries 
with  which  we  have  sometimes  excused  ourselves ; 
but  in  neglecting  to  make  Lazarus  his  friend  he  de- 
cided his  own  destiny  for  ever. 

3.  At  this  point,  it  is  natural  to  think,  the  parable 
might  have  ended  ;  the  lesson  which  Jesus  intended 
to  teach — that  we  should  provide  for  the  future  by 
making  friends  of  those  who  will  welcome  us  into  the 
world  to  come — has  been  powerfully  and  solemnly 
taught.  The  inhuman  man  is  a  lost  soul :  he  enters 
eternity  without  a  friend.  But  in  point  of  fact  the 
parable  does  not  end  here  :  there  is  a  curious  addition 
(vv.  27-3 1 )  in  which  the  rich  man  appeals  to  Abraham  to 
send  Lazarus  to  warn  his  five  brothers,  and  Abraham 
persistently  refuses.  How  is  this  connected  in  thought 
with  what  precedes  ?  There  are  those  who  take  it 
as  a  symptom  of  some  surviving  good  in  the  rich  man, 
an  indication  that  he  is  not  so  destitute  of  humanity 
after  all ;  there  is  a  root  of  kindness  and  sympathy  in 
him  to  which  hopes  of  his  own  final  restoration  may 
be  attached.  Others,  again,  find  in  the  appeal  to 
Abraham  only  a  symptom  of  latent  rebellion  ;  the 
rich  man  is  virtually  charging  God  with  having  been 
unjust  to  him,  and  making  his  restoration,  if  we  may 
put  it  so,  more  impossible  than  ever.  Both  of  these 
explanations  fail  in  this  respect :  they  introduce  some- 
thing which  is  irrelevant  to  the  story  as  a  whole.  The 
idea  in  the  appendix  or  supplement  to  the  parable, 
however  we  define  it,  must  be  one  which  reinforces 


I70  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  main  lesson,  not  one  which  (as  with  the  inter- 
pretations supposed)  distracts  attention  from  it.  The 
way  in  which  it  is  to  be  woven  into  one  whole  with 
what  precedes  is,  I  believe,  something  like  this. 
**  That  is  final,"  we  can  imagine  Jesus'  hearers  saying 
to  themselves  when  He  had  finished  His  unfolding  of 
the  invisible  situation  ;  "that  is  final ;  but  is  it  fair? 
The  rich  man  did  not  know  about  the  unseen  world. 
If  he  had  seen  hell  fire  as  clearly  as  he  saw  the 
wretchedness  of  Lazarus  or  his  own  sumptuous  table, 
he  would  have  acted  differently.  He  should  have 
been  more  distinctly  warned  of  the  consequences  of 
inhumanity,  and  so  should  others  be."  It  is  to  meet 
such  thoughts  as  these,  which  would  be  sure  to  occur 
to  others  as  they  occur  to  us,  that  the  parable  is  con- 
tinued beyond  v.  26.  There  is  no  further  interest 
in  the  rich  man  on  his  own  account ;  he  is  only  used 
to  state  the  objection  which  is  sure  at  some  time  or 
other  to  present  itself  to  every  one — that  the  in- 
visible world  of  which  the  parable  speaks  is  without 
evidence.  Men  do  not  know  about  it,  and  if  motives 
from  it  are  to  enter  life  and  influence  conduct,  they 
ought  to  be  told  about  it  by  a  witness  they  could  not 
doubt.  "  Let  some  one  go  to  them  from  the  dead." 
The  great  thing  to  notice  is  that  Jesus  treats  this 
objection  as  mere  trifling.  **They  have  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them  ...  if  they  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded though  one  rose  from  the  dead."  What  is 
wanted  is  that  men  should  be  humane ;  and  if  the 
revelation  of  the  character  and  will  of  God  in  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  appeal  of  the  beggar  at  the  door,  do 
not  make  them  so,  what  will  ?  They  must  become 
humane  from  considerations  of  humanity,  or  not  at 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     171 

all.  If  they  can  be  inhuman  with  the  Bible  in  their 
hands  and  Lazarus  at  their  gate,  no  revelation  of  the 
splendours  of  heaven  or  the  anguish  of  hell  v^ill  ever 
make  them  anything  else.  So,  at  least,  Jesus  teaches, 
and  so  God  acts.  Who  will  venture  to  dispute  the 
truth  ? 

When  we  take  the  parable  as  a  whole,  therefore,  it 
is  not  a  lesson  on  the  other  world,  but  a  lesson  on 
humanity.  In  particular,  it  is  a  lesson  on  the  oppor- 
tunities which  the  rich  have  (and  need),  in  presence 
of  the  poor,  of  making  friends  who  can  welcome  and 
bear  witness  to  them  in  the  world  unseen.  I  shall 
conclude  with  some  reflections  which  it  suggests  for 
the  mind  and  conditions  of  our  own  time  and  country. 

The  constitution  of  society  is  such  among  us  that  it 
is  possible  for  great  numbers  of  people  to  live  almost 
without  seeing  the  poor.  There  is  a  west  end  in 
every  large  town,  and  people  can  live  exclusively  in 
their  own  class.  The  destitute  are  not  exposed  as 
they  are  in  civilizations  of  another  order.  There  are 
poorhouses,  infirmaries,  asylums ;  the  defective  mem- 
bers of  society,  those  who  have  been  defeated  in  the 
battle  of  life,  those  who  are  physically  and  mentally, 
not  to  say  morally,  incapable  of  taking  care  of  them- 
selves, the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  halt,  the  blind,  are 
accumulated  there  ;  they  do  not  shock  us  at  our  doors. 
But  this  is  not  all  gain.  What  is  unseen  is  too  often 
unthought  of,  unfelt,  not  responded  to.  It  does  not 
constitute  a  motive  for,  and  does  not  produce,  humane 
and  unselfish  acts.  The  actual  needs  and  woes  of 
multitudes  are  hidden  from  multitudes  of  others ; 
and  there  must  be  many  who  (apart  from  their  own 
families)  have  never  once  considerately,  spontaneously, 


172  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

unselfishly,  and  from  motives  of  pure  humanity,  helped 
the  sick  or  the  poor. 

This  is  a  loss  to  the  poor,  but  what  the  parable  in- 
vites us  to  consider  is  that  it  is  a  greater  loss  to  those 
in  whom  humanity  lies  dormant,  or  is  selfishly  re- 
pressed. It  is  a  loss  to  society  when  all  help  is 
organized  and  rendered  through  institutions,  which 
however  humanitarian  they  may  be  in  their  origin, 
tend  constantly  to  fall  short  of  being  humane  in  their 
actual  working.  The  personal  contact  of  those  who 
minister  to  the  poor  and  destitute  with  those  to  whom 
their  help  is  given  sweetens  the  breath  of  society. 
Once  when  he  thought  himself  dying  Sir  Walter  Scott 
called  his  children  round  his  bed  and  said  to  them  : 
**  For  myself,  my  dears,  I  am  unconscious  of  ever  hav- 
ing done  any  man  an  injury,  or  omitted  any  fair  op- 
portunity of  doing  any  man  a  benefit^  What  kind  of 
life  is  it,  which  in  a  world  crowded  with  appeals  for 
humanity,  never  gives  a  man  or  a  woman  the  chance 
of  being  humane  ?  It  is  precisely  this  which  is  wanted 
to  enrich  and  render  happy  lives  which  are  stale  with 
selfishness  and  satiety.  Lazarus  needed  the  rich  man, 
undoubtedly ;  but  do  not  let  us  forget  that  the  main 
lesson  of  the  parable  is  that  the  rich  man  needed 
Lazarus  more  still. 

The  difficulty  of  helping  the  poor  must  not  be  made 
an  excuse  for  inhumanity.  It  may  be  very  difficult  to 
do  it  wisely,  and  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  injure  those 
whom  we  would  fain  help.  No  doubt  in  a  world  like 
ours  there  are  parasites,  professional  beggars,  and 
sponges  of  all  kinds,  who  prey  upon  charity  and  are 
ruined  by  it.  Men  who  are  rich  and  are  known  to  be 
kind  are  besieged  by  petitioners,  sometimes  no  doubt 
necessitous,    but   sometimes    false,    importunate,  and 


THE  RICH  MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     173 

shameless.  Often  they  are  embarrassed,  and  some- 
times when  they  find  out  that  they  have  been 
defrauded  they  are  tempted  to  give  up  interest  in 
their  kind,  and  to  lapse  into  indifference  and  a  stony 
heart.  But  anything  is  better  than  that.  **  Blessed," 
says  the  Psalmist,  "is  he  that  considereth  the  poor." 
Probably  there  are  cases  in  which  his  consideration 
will  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  a  touch  of  law  is  wanted 
to  help  with  effect,  and  that  the  Charity  Organization 
Society,  or  some  institution  which  can  deal  with  the 
shifty  on  the  basis  of  rules,  is  better  adapted  than  he 
is  individually  to  do  what  needs  to  be  done ;  but  on 
the  whole,  this  is  not  likely.  It  is  the  contact  of  man 
with  man  by  which  humanity  is  quickened  and  enriched 
on  both  sides,  and  when  we  can  exercise  it  directly,  it 
is  twice  blessed. 

Another  reflection  germane  to  this  story  is  that  the 
great  impediment  to  helping  others  is  the  love  of 
pleasure.  It  is  the  desire,  or  what  is  perhaps  stronger 
still,  the  unconscious  tendency,  to  live  as  the  rich  man 
lived,  that  defeats  the  claim  of  the  poor.  One  of  the 
inevitable  results  of  civilization  is  the  multiplication  of 
artificial  necessities,  and  of  those  who  are  eager  to 
meet  the  demand  for  them.  We  need  or  think  we  need 
a  thousand  things  which  we  could  very  well  do  with- 
out, and  there  are  a  thousand  people  importuning  us 
to  spend  our  money  upon  them — thrusting  them  into 
our  very  hands  on  the  most  tempting  terms.  Plainly 
there  are  many  people  who  find  the  temptation  to  spend 
so  strong  that  they  simply  cannot  keep  their  money 
in  their  pockets.  It  is  drawn  from  them  as  by  an  ir- 
resistible attraction.  They  have  no  bad  conscience 
about  it,  but  they  just  do  not  know  where  it  goes.  It 
goes  on  dress,  on  travelling,  on  trinkets,  on  personal 


174  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

adornments,  and  indulgence  of  every  kind ;  and  the 
result  is,  that  when  the  call  of  charity  comes  there  is 
nothing  to  meet  it.  All  works  of  love,  from  Christian 
missions  down,  are  carried  on  under  the  pressure  of  a 
perpetual  deficit.  When  people  say  they  have  not 
anything  to  give  for  such  causes,  they  are  as  a  rule 
telling  the  truth.  They  have  nothing  to  give  because 
they  have  already  spent  everything.  But  the  true 
moral  of  this  is,  that  the  call  for  charity  is  often  also  a 
call  for  self-denial  and  thrift.  No  one  will  ever  have 
anything  to  give  who  has  not  learned  to  save,  and  no 
one  learns  to  save  without  checking  the  impulse  to 
spend  his  money  for  things  which  it  would  no  doubt 
be  pleasant  enough  to  have,  but  which  he  can  quite 
well  do  without.  The  rising  generation  is  credited 
rightly  or  wrongly  with  excessive  lack  of  restraint 
here.  Everything  goes.  They  live  up  to  their  means 
and  beyond  them,  and  have  nothing  to  give  away. 
This  is  not  the  way  to  become  rich  on  earth,  but  what 
the  parable  teaches  is  the  more  serious  lesson  that  it 
is  not  the  way  to  become  rich  toward  God.  The  man 
who  has  spent  nothing  on  charity  has  no  treasure  in 
heaven.  He  is  as  poor  as  Lazarus  there.  He  is  on 
the  way  to  a  world  in  which  he  will  not  have  a  single 
friend. 

The  main  teachings  of  the  parable  may  be  summed 
up  in  two  further  thoughts  which  it  might  almost  be 
said  to  force  upon  us.  The  first  is,  that  God  appeals 
to  us  at  our  doors,  and  in  ways  which  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  misunderstand.  Many  people  believe  them- 
selves to  be  interested  in  religion,  in  whom  neverthe- 
less everything  which  could  truly  be  called  religious 
life  is  held  in  abeyance  because  of  what  they  consider 
religious   difficulties.     They   cannot   properly   be  re- 


THE  RICH   MAN'S  NEED  OF  THE  POOR     175 

ligious — they  cannot,  so  to  speak,  get  their  rehgious 
life  under  way — until  these  difficulties  are  disposed  of. 
They  read  this  story  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  for 
example,  and  their  minds  immediately  go  off  on  the 
familiar  line.  Where  is  Hades  ?  Do  all  people  enter 
it  when  they  die  ?  Is  the  state  of  those  who  are  there 
affected  by  the  resurrection  ?  What  is  the  authority 
for  us  of  the  words  here  ascribed  to  Jesus  ?  Are  they 
literally  true,  or  are  they  true  only  in  the  impression 
they  make  on  the  moral  imagination  ?  These,  to  their 
minds,  are  the  religious  questions  raised  by  this  narra- 
tive, and  religion  seems  to  them  to  be  somehow  barred 
or  held  in  suspense  till  these  questions  are  answered. 
I  do  not  say  they  are  never  to  be  asked,  or  that  it  is 
no  matter  how  they  are  answered.  But  surely  if  any- 
thing is  plain,  it  is  plain  that  to  the  mind  of  Jesus  the 
one  important  religious  question  is  none  of  these.  It 
is  a  far  simpler  question  :  What  have  you  done  with 
Lazarus  at  the  door?  No  one  will  come  from  the 
dead  to  give  you  the  clear  and  distinct  knowledge  of 
the  unseen  world  which  curiosity  craves.  But  no  ig- 
norance, suspense,  or  indecision  about  these  remote 
questions  has  any  vital  relation  to  religion.  It  is  in 
the  situation  which  we  have  to  deal  with  at  our  doors 
that  all  real  religious  motives  are  to  be  found.  It  is 
in  that  situation,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  motives 
which  it  yields,  that  we  have  to  make — and  do  make — 
to  God  and  man  the  revelation  of  what  we  are. 

The  second  thought,  and  that  in  which  we  may  say 
the  parable  is  summarily  comprehended,  is  that  men 
are  judged  finally  by  the  standard  of  humanity.  The 
sublime  picture  of  the  last  judgment  in  Matthew  xxv. 
31-46  may  be  said  to  be  our  Lord's  own  generalization 
of  what  is  here  presented  in  a  particular  case      When 


176  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  Son  of  Man  sits  on  the  throne  of  His  glory  and  all 
nations  are  gathered  before  Him,  He  judges  them  by 
the  rule  which  is  here  applied  to  the  rich  man.  If 
there  are  those  to  whom  He  must  say,  **  I  was  an 
hungered,  and  ye  gave  Me  no  meat :  I  was  thirsty,  and 
ye  gave  Me  no  drink  :  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took 
Me  not  in  ;  naked,  and  ye  clothed  Me  not ;  sick,  and  in 
prison,  and  ye  visited  Me  not":  if  there  are  those 
to  whom  He  must  say  this,  there  is  nothing  to  say  in 
reply.  It  is  a  final  condemnation.  Inhumanity  is  the 
damning  sin  which  excludes  for  ever  from  the 
company  of  the  Son  of  Man  those  who  are  guilty  of  it. 
The  man  who  needs  our  help  at  this  moment  is  trying 
what  we  are,  and  at  the  Last  Judgment  will  be  the 
decisive  witness  for  or  against  us.  True  religion  is  as 
simple  as  this,  and  it  is  a  fatal  blunder  when  we  allow 
a  truth  so  vital  and  indisputable  to  be  blurred  or 
shadowed  or  thrust  into  the  background  by  those 
philosophical  or  theological  perplexities  which  are  so 
commonly  spoken  of  as  religious  difficulties.  It  is 
humanity — I  mean  humanity  in  the  ethical,  not  the 
metaphysical  sense;  humanity  as  opposed  to  insensi- 
bility, selfishness,  cruelty — which  by  uniting  us  to  man 
and  to  God  assures  our  future.  It  brings  us  into  a 
common  interest  with  God  and  His  children.  He  who 
feeds  the  hungry  and  clothes  the  naked  has  treasure 
in  heaven,  and  the  very  fact  makes  heaven  real  to  him 
as  it  cannot  be  to  the  hard  hearted.  The  invisible 
world  will  never  be  more  than  a  source  of  unanswer- 
able questions,  which  will  take  the  delusive  form  of 
religious  difficulties,  to  the  unfeeling  and  inhuman ; 
but  to  those  who  live  in  a  love  and  humanity  like  that 
of  Jesus  it  will  be  what  it  was  to  Him — another  part 
of  the  Father's  house,  and  as  real  as  that  which  we  see. 


IMMORTALITY. 

"  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  " — Job  xiv.  14. 

I.  Who  has  not  asked  this  question,  in  suspense,  in 
hope,  or  in  fear  ?  We  know  that  we  must  all  die  :  we 
know  that  those  who  are  dearest  to  us  must  die  :  can 
our  eyes  penetrate  beyond  the  veil  which  death  lets 
fall  ?  Is  there  any  answer  in  the  nature  or  heart  of 
humanity  to  the  question  of  Job,  *'  If  a  man  die  shall  he 
live  again  ?  " 

If  we  look  at  the  history  of  nations  and  religions, 
we  see  that  the  whole  tendency  of  man  has  been  to 
answer  the  question  in  one  way.  "  Looking  at  the 
religion  of  the  lower  races  as  a  whole,"  says  Dr.  Tylor 
in  \\\'s,  Primitive  Culture^  "we  shall  at  least  not  be  ill 
advised  in  taking  as  one  of  its  general  and  principal 
elements  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  future  life."  The 
idea  of  the  extinction  or  annihilation  of  man  in  death 
is  indeed  not  so  much  a  natural  as  a  philosophic  or 
doctrinaire  one  ;  an  untaught  mind  is  incapable  of  it,  and 
it  only  appears  as  a  fruit  of  reflection  or  speculation. 
The  natural  inclination  of  man  everywhere  is  to  believe 
not  in  his  extinction,  but  in  his  survival.  The  ideas 
attached  to  the  word  may  be  vague,  but  they  are  real, 
and  they  exercise  a  real  influence  upon  the  life.  Their 
effect  is  seen,  sometimes  in  the  burial  customs  of  savage 
races — as  in  the  interment  of  the  warrior's  weapons, 
or  the  artificer's  tools,  along  with  him,  or  more  terribly 

(177)  12 


178  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

in  the  slaughter  of  his  wife  or  his  slaves,  that  he  may 
have  all  that  he  needs  with  him  in  the  spirit  land; 
sometimes  in  the  widely  diffused  worship  of  ancestors, 
which  implies  not  only  that  the  dead  are  believed  to 
live,  but  that  they  have  command  over  powers  which 
may  injure  or  benefit  the  living. 

2.  What  strikes  one  most  in  looking  at  this  wide- 
spread, one  may  truly  say  this  universal,  faith  in  man's 
survival 'of  death,  is  its  moral  neutrality.  All  men  sur- 
vive, and  they  survive  in  practically  the  same  condition, 
whether  they  are  good  or  bad.  The  world  into  which 
they  pass  is  conceived  as  a  shadowy  unsubstantial 
place,  and  the  life  of  those  who  tenant  it  corresponds. 
The  ancient  Greeks  called  this  place  Hades,  or  the 
realm  of  the  unseen ;  the  ancient  Hebrews  called  it 
Sheol,  which  probably  means  the  hollow  place,  the  sub- 
terranean abode  which  was  entered  by  the  grave.  The 
descriptions  which 'are  given  of  it  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  numerous  and  depressing.  Man  existed  in  it,  but  did 
not  live.  He  had  no  communion  there  either  with  the 
living  God  or  with  living  men.  It  was  a  pale  transcript 
of  life,  but  not  life  in  reality.  It  was  a  realm  of  dark- 
ness, dust,  and  endless  silence,  unbroken  by  the  vision 
of  God,  or  the  voice  of  praise.  The  best  men  shrank 
from  it  with  horror.  The  feeling  with  which  they 
regarded  it  will  be  sufficiently  illustrated  by  these 
lines  from  the  Psalm  of  Hezekiah  :  **  I  said.  In  the  noon- 
tide of  my  days  I  shall  go  into  the  gates  of  Sheol.  ...  I 
shall  not  see  the  Lord,  even  the  Lord  in  the  land  of 
the  living :  I  shall  behold  man  no  more  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  world.  .  .  .  But  Thou  hast  in  love 
to  my  soul  delivered  it  from  the  pit  of  nothingness, 
for  Thou  hast  cast  all  my  sins  behind  Thy  back,     For 


IMMORTALITY  179 

She61  cannot  praise  Thee,  death  cannot  celebrate  Thee  : 
they  that  go  down  into  the  pit  cannot  hope  for  Thy 
truth.  The  Hving,  the  hving,  He  shall  praise  Thee,  as  I 
do  this  day  :  the  father  to  the  children  shall  make  known 
Thy  truth."  Many  have  been  astonished  and  perplexed 
at  finding  such  utterances  in  the  Bible.  They  do  not 
see  how  to  reconcile  them  with  the  idea  of  any  revela- 
tion made  by  God  to  man.  But  the  truth  is  that  such 
vague  beliefs  in  man's  survival,  common  as  they  are 
to  the  Hebrews  and  innumerable  other  races,  are  not  a 
part  of  revealed  religion  at  all.  The  instinctive  belief 
that  man  survives  death  is  only  the  point  of  attachment, 
so  to  speak,  for  a  true  faith  in  immortality.  It  is  that 
in  human  nature  which  the  spirit  of  revelation  takes 
hold  of,  exalts,  connects  with  God,  fills  with  moral 
and  religious  contents,  and  makes  effective  as  the  great 
source  of  hope,  courage,  and  consolation.  The  history 
of  revelation,  so  far  as  this  article  is  concerned,  is  the 
history  of  a  process  in  which  the  instinctive  belief  in 
man's  survival,  with  all  its  indifference  to  moral  distinc- 
tions, was  transformed  into  the  New  Testament  faith 
in  eternal  life  for  the  good,  and  the  eternal  loss  of  the 
wicked. 

3.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  that  apart  from  revela- 
tion men  never  in  any  degree  transcended  the  vague 
ideas  of  the  future  to  which  I  have  referred.  In  many 
pagan  religions  the  conception  of  the  future  life  filled 
a  great  space  ;  in  some,  it  even  absorbed  the  attention 
of  the  worshippers  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else. 
On  this  ground  some  have  preferred  the  religion  of 
ancient  Egypt,  for  instance,  or  the  religion  of  Persia, 
to  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament.  Certainly  the 
future  life  bulks  far  more  largely  in  both  than  it  does 


1 80  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

in  the  Old  Testament.  Every  one,  to  speak  only  of 
the  former,  knows  the  extraordinary  care  which  the 
Egyptians  bestowed  upon  their  dead.  Every  one 
knows  about  the  mummies,  in  which  the  body  was  pre- 
served for  thousands  of  years,  that  the  soul,  which  could 
not  live  without  it,  might  survive  too.  Everybody  has 
read  descriptions,  or  seen  pictures,  of  the  Egyptian 
tombs,  the  everlasting  houses  of  the  departed,  so  much 
more  solid  and  enduring  than  the  abodes  of  the  living. 
Every  one  has  heard  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead — the 
most  ancient  book  in  the  world — and  of  the  judgment 
of  souls  in  the  under  world,  in  which  the  Egyptians 
were  taught  to  believe.  Are  not  all  these  symptoms 
of  a  more  advanced  religion  than  we  find  among  the 
Hebrews  ?  I  do  not  think  so.  It  might  be  enough  to 
reply  that  the  Egyptian  religion  has  died,  and  that  that 
is  God's  verdict  upon  it ;  whereas  the  Hebrew  religion 
lived,  grew,  and  lives  on  to  the  present  day  in  the 
fullness  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  it  may  also  be 
pointed  out  that  the  Egyptian  faith  in  the  future, 
whatever  its  religious  impulse  may  have  been  at  first, 
became  hopelessly  demoralized  at  last.  Man's  stand- 
ing in  the  judgment  came  to  depend,  not  on  his  life 
and  character,  but  on  his  due  observance  of  a  thousand 
rites  or  charms  which  had  no  moral  significance 
whatever.  A  religion  which  at  a  first  glance  seems  to 
be  of  peculiar  moral  promise  is  found  on  closer  inspec- 
tion to  be  a  tangle  of  superstitious  observances  in 
which  reason  and  morality  have  perished  together. 
A  mere  preoccupation  with  the  future  could  not  re- 
deem it  from  its  ethical  worthlessness ;  it  was  dead 
even  while  it  lived,  and  now  we  can  only  examine  it 
in  its  remains.     Its  history  has  an  antiquarian  interest ; 


IMMORTALITY  i8i 

it  is  not  vitally  related  to  the  world's  hope.  It  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  God's  providential  care  of 
Israel,  that  though  Israel  lived  long  in  Egypt,  and 
was  more  or  less  in  contact  with  Egypt  for  1 500  years, 
this  dead  faith  in  the  life  beyond — this  non-moral, 
non-religious  interest  in  what  came  after  death — was 
never  suffered  to  taint  or  pervert  the  simpler  ideas  of 
the  chosen  people.  They  might  have  nothing  but  the 
instinctive  tendency  to  believe  in  man's  survival,  but 
at  least  they  had  it  uncorrupted,  and  in  due  time  God 
could  make  it  grow  to  more. 

4.  But  if  religion  did  not  of  itself  develop  a  true 
faith  in  immortality,  was  there  no  other  power  at  work 
in  human  nature  which  could  do  so?  We  have  all 
heard  of  arguments  for  the  immortality  of  the  soul : 
did  not  they  result  in  anything?  The  true  home  of 
such  arguments  was  Greece,  and  the  great  philosophers 
of  that  country,  particularly  Plato,  speculated  on  the 
nature  and  the  destiny  of  man.  They  felt  there  was 
something  Divine  in  human  nature,  as  well  as  some- 
thing which  seemed  to  them  to  be  only  of  the  earth. 
The  mortality  of  the  body  they  could  not  deny,  nor 
did  they  wish  to  do  so.  They  conceived  of  it  not  as 
the  necessary  expression  and  organ  of  the  soul,  but  as 
a  burden,  a  prison,  a  tomb ;  it  was  their  one  hope  and 
desire  that  man's  immortal  part  might  one  day  be 
delivered  from  it.  The  Greek  philosophers,  too,  as 
well  as  the  great  poets,  rose  above  that  moral  neutrality 
which  I  have  spoken  of  as  characterizing  the  instinctive 
faith  in  man's  survival.  They  saw  rewards  and  punish- 
ments in  the  once  undistinguishing  future.  Heroic 
men  were  admitted  to  some  kind  of  blessed  existence 
in  Elysian  fields ;  while  the  conspicuously  bad,  giants, 


1 82  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

tyrants,  lawless  profligates,  were  tormented  in  some 
kind  of  hell.  Such  ideas,  however,  were  confined  to  a 
limited  circle ;  they  did  not  interest  themselves  in  the 
common  people ;  and  however  much  we  may  admire 
the  nobleness  of  the  poets  and  philosophers  of  Greece, 
it  is  not  to  them,  any  more  than  to  the  priests  of 
Egypt,  that  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  hope  of 
immortality. 

5.  Why  was  it  then,  we  may  ask,  that  both  natural 
religion  and  speculative  philosophy  proved  ineffective 
in  their  treatment  of  the  future,  and  of  man's  relation 
to  it  ?  Why  do  we  prize  even  the  Old  Testament  in 
which  the  hope  of  immortality,  to  say  the  least,  is  so  in- 
conspicuous, above  other  religious  authorities  in  which 
it  figures  so  much  more  prominently  ?  The  reason  is 
plain.  These  religions  and  philosophies  failed  because 
they  wanted  the  one  thing  from  which  faith  in  immor- 
tality could  securely  and  healthily  spring — the  one  and 
only  ground  on  which  it  could  arise  rich  in  moral 
and  religious  contents,  full  of  consolation,  of  inspiration, 
of  strength  :  a  true  conception  of  God,  and  of  man  and 
his  relation  to  God.  It  is  quite  true  to  say  that  Israel 
had  hardly  any  ideas  about  the  future,  and  shrank  in 
horror  from  those  it  had  ;  but  Israel  had  God,  and  that 
was  everything.  Israel  knew  that  there  was  One  only, 
the  living  and  true  God,  from  everlasting  to  everlast- 
ing, infinite  in  goodness  and  truth ;  Israel  knew  that 
God  had  made  man  in  His  own  image,  capable  of 
communion  with  Him,  and  only  blessed  in  such  com- 
munion ;  to  Israel,  to  see  good  was  all  one  with  to  see 
God  ;  with  God  was  the  fountain  of  life,  in  God's  light 
His  people  saw  light.  This  faith  in  God  was  greater 
than  Israel  knew ;  it  could  not  be  explored  and  ex 


IMMORTALITY  183 

hausted  in  a  day  ;  it  had  treasures  stored  up  in  it  that 
only  centuries  of  experience  could  disclose,  and  among 
them  was  the  hope  of  immortality.  The  believing 
nation  of  Israel,  like  Bunyan's  pilgrim,  unconsciously 
carried  the  key  of  promise  in  its  bosom,  even  when  it 
was  in  the  dungeon  of  Giant  Despair. 

6.  The  great  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  which 
the  hope  emerges,  come  upon  us  suddenly,  as  the  find- 
ing of  the  key  came  upon  the  pilgrim.  This  passage  in 
Job  is  one.  The  tried  man  is  in  the  very  extremity  of 
his  distress.  He  feels — for  so  he  interprets  his  dis- 
tress— that  God  for  some  reason  is  angry  with  him, 
and  that  His  anger  will  endure  till  he  dies.  His 
disease  is  mortal,  and  will  carry  him  to  his  grave. 
But  is  that  all  ?  Job  finds  his  faith  in  God  come  to 
his  relief  For  God  is  righteous,  the  vindicator  of 
righteousness,  and  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  abandon 
a  righteous  man  as  Job  would  be  abandoned,  if  his 
death  ended  all.  The  idea  comes  to  Job  through  his 
faith  in  God,  that  Sheol  may  not  be  the  final  outlook, 
and  he  puts  it  into  the  pathetic  prayer  :  '*  O  that  Thou 
wouldst  hide  me  in  Sheol,  that  Thou  wouldst  keep 
me  secret  until  Thy  wrath  be  past,  that  Thou  wouldst 
appoint  me  a  set  time  and  remember  me !  "  How  pa- 
tient such  a  prospect  would  make  the  suffering  man. 
How  uncomplainingly  he  would  face  the  dreary  under- 
world if  he  knew  that  it  was  only  a  temporary  inter- 
ruption to  his  communion  with  God.  **  All  the  days 
of  my  warfare  would  I  wait  till  my  release  should 
come.  Thou  shouldest  call,  and  I  would  answer  Thee  : 
Thou  wouldest  have  a  desire  to  the  work  of  Thine 
hands."  This  is  only  the  yearning  of  the  soul,  its  faint 
anticipation,  born  of  faith,  of  what  might  be ;  but  in  a 


i84  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

later  passage  we  see  it  flame  up  triumphantly,  though 
it  is  but  for  a  moment.     **  I  know  that  my  Redeemer 
liveth,  and  that  He  shall  stand  up  at  the  last  upon  the 
earth,  and  after  my  skin  hath  been  thus  destroyed,  yet 
from  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God,  whom  I  shall  see  for 
myself,  and  mine  eyes  shall  behold  and  not  another. 
My  reins  are  consumed  within  me  " — that  is,  I  faint 
with    longing   for    that   great   vindication.      Both    in 
Egypt  and  in  Greece  faith  in  immortality,  such  as  it 
was,  rested  simply  on  conceptions  of  man's  nature  ; 
here,  as  everywhere  in  revealed  religion,  it  rests  on 
the  character  of  God.     He  is  the  Eternal  Righteous- 
ness, and  His  faith  is  pledged  to  man  whom  He  calls 
to  live  in  fellowship  with  Himself.     All  things  may 
seem  to  be  against  a  man ;  his  friends  may  desert  him, 
circumstances  may  accuse  him  ;  but  if  he  is  righteous, 
God  cannot  desert  him,  and  if  he  must  die  under  a 
cloud,   even   death  will   not  prevent  his  vindication. 
His  Redeemer  lives,  and  one  day  he  shall  again  see 
God.     And  to  see  God  is  to  have  life,   in  the  only 
sense  which  is  adequate  to  the  Bible  use  of  the  word. 
7.   In  the  Book  of  Psalms  we  have  the  same  type  of 
conviction  presented  from  another  point  of  view.     The 
Psalmists  write,  as  a  rule,  as  men  in  the  actual  enjoy- 
ment  of  communion   with    God.     Their    life    is    not 
merely  human,  it  is  Divine  as  well.     The  fountain  of 
it   is  with   God.     God    Himself  is   their  refuge    and 
their   portion ;    as    one   of  them   says,    they  have  no 
good  beyond  Him.     In  their  experience  the  Divine 
and  the  human  interpenetrate  each   other :  they  see 
and  enjoy  God.     Perhaps  it  is   one  consequence   of 
this  intense  consciousness  of  God's  presence  and  grace 
that  they  think  so  little  about  the  future.      Having 


IMMORTALITY  185 

God,  they  have  everything,  and  no  time,  past,  present, 
or  to  come,  can  make  any  difference  to  them.  But 
sometimes  they  do  dehberately  face  the  thought  of 
death,  and  then  we  see  their  faith  shine  out.  What 
has  death  to  do  with  such  a  life  as  theirs  ?  Is  death 
stronger  than  God  ?  If  He  holds  us,  can  it  pluck  us 
out  of  His  hand  ?  Never.  The  Old  Testament  saints 
in  the  sublime  hours  of  their  faith  had  a  sublime  sense 
of  their  eternal  security  with  God.  "Thou  shalt 
guide  me  with  Thy  counsel,  and  afterward  receive  me 
unto  glory."  "God  will  redeem  my  soul  from  the 
hand  of  Sheol,  for  He  will  receive  me."  "Thou  wilt 
not  leave  my  soul  to  Sheol,  neither  wilt  Thou  suffer  Thy 
holy  one  to  see  corruption.  Thou  wilt  show  me  the 
path  of  life — athwart  that  pathless  gulf;  in  Thy  pres- 
ence is  fullness  of  joy ;  in  Thy  right  hand  there  are 
pleasures  for  evermore."  Nay  we  even  find  words  of 
triumph  over  the  last  enemy  which  the  New  Testament 
in  its  loftiest  mood  can  only  borrow  :  "  I  will  ransom 
them  from  the  power  of  the  grave  ;  I  will  redeem  them 
from  death  :  O  death,  where  are  thy  plagues  ?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  destruction  ?  "  The  weapons  of  the  King 
of  terrors  are  struck  from  his  hand,  and  death  is 
swallowed  up  for  ever.  It  was  along  this  line  of  re- 
ligious experience,  inspired  by  faith  in  the  living,  true, 
holy,  and  gracious  God,  that  the  true  hope  of  immor- 
tality entered  the  world. 

8.  It  would  have  been  natural  once  to  pass  from  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  New  almost  without  the  con- 
sciousness of  interruption,  but  this  is  hardly  permis- 
sible now.  When  we  consider  the  two  in  reference 
to  the  subject  before  us,  it  is  obvious  that  in  the  New 
Testament  the  faith  in  immortality  has  new  features. 


1 86  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

In  particular,  it  has  become  quite  definitely  a  faith  in 
the  Resurrection.  The  growth  of  this  peculiar  form 
of  the  belief  in  immortality  has  been  laboriously  in- 
vestigated, but  not  with  entire  success.  The  sacred 
books  of  the  Persians,  who  certainly  believed  in  some 
kind  of  resurrection,  have  been  diligently  explored, 
and  many  who  know  that  the  religion  of  Israel  received 
no  impulse  from  Egyptian  ideas  of  the  future  suppose 
that  it  was  strongly  influenced  by  contact  with  Zoroas- 
trianism.  But  the  real  fountain  of  the  hope  in  immor- 
tality has  been  already  indicated,  and  when  we  look 
at  the  Resurrection  as  it  appears  in  Zoroastrianism 
and  in  Jewish  apocalyptic  literature  on  the  one  hand, 
and  in  the  New  Testament  on  the  other,  it  is  not  more 
the  similarity  than  the  contrast  by  which  we  are 
impressed.  In  these  other  books,  we  are  in  a  world 
of  lawless  fantasy,  where  anything  is  said  of  the  future 
because  nothing  is  known ;  in  the  New  Testament  we 
are  on  the  same  ground  of  historical  fact  and  religious 
experience  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Old.  Con- 
sider for  a  moment  how  the  case  stands. 

9.  Christians  believe  in  their  own  resurrection  to 
eternal  life,  because  they  believe  in  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ.  But  faith  does  not  depend  upon — it  does  not 
originate  in  nor  is  it  maintained  by — the  Resurrection  of 
Christ,  simply  as  a  historical  fact.  The  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  is  not  simply  a  fact  outside  of  us,  guaranteeing 
in  some  mysterious  way  our  resurrection  in  some  re- 
mote future.  It  is  a  present  power  in  the  believer. 
He  can  say  with  St.  Paul — Christ  liveth  in  me — the 
risen  Christ — the  Conqueror  of  Death — and  a  part, 
therefore,  is  ensured  to  me  in  His  life  and  immortality. 
This  is  the  great  idea  of  the  New  Testament  whenever 


IMMORTALITY  187 

the  future  life  is  in  view.  It  is  indeed  very  variously  ex- 
pressed. Sometimes  it  is  Christ  in  us,  the  hope  of  glory. 
Sometimes  it  is  specially  connected  with  the  possession, 
or  rather  the  indwelling,  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "If  the 
Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell 
in  you,  He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall 
quicken  also  your  mortal  bodies  through  His  Spirit 
that  dwelleth  in  you."  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  re- 
ligious attitude  here  is  precisely  what  it  was  in  the 
Old  Testament,  though  as  the  revelation  is  fuller,  the 
faith  which  apprehends  it,  and  the  hope  which  grows 
out  of  it,  are  richer.  Just  as  union  with  God  guar-  I 
anteed  to  the  Psalmist  a  life  that  would  never  end,  i 
so  union  with  the  risen  Saviour  guaranteed  to  the  I 
Apostles,  and  guarantees  to  us,  the  resurrection 
triumph  over  death.  Here  is  a  faith  in  immortality/ 
which  is  moral  and  spiritual  through  and  through — 
which  rests  upon  a  supreme  revelation  of  what  God 
has  done  for  man — which  involves  a  present  life  in 
fellowship  with  the  risen  Saviour — which  is  neither 
worldly  nor  other  worldly,  but  eternal — which  has 
propagated  itself  through  all  ages  and  in  all  nations — 
which  in  Jesus  Christ  invites  all  men  to  become  sharers 
in  it — which  is  the  present,  living,  governing  faith  of 
believing  men  and  w^omen  in  proportion  as  they  realize 
their  union  with  the  Saviour  :  a  faith  infinite  in  its 
power  to  console  and  inspire  :  a  faith  not  always  easy 
to  hold,  but  demanding  for  its  retention  that  effort 
and  strain  in  which  St.  Paul  strove  to  know  Him,  and 
the  power  of  His  Resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of 
His  sufferings,  becoming  conformed  to  His  death,  if  by 
any  means  he  might  attain  to  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.     And  all  this,  which  fills  the  epistles  of  the  New 


188  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Testament  goes  back  to  the  words  of  Jesus  Himself: 
''Abide  in  Me,  and  I  in  you  " ;  and,  "  because  I  live,  ye 
shall  hve  also  ". 

ID.   "  If  a  man  die,"  asked  Job,  "  shall  he  live  again  ?  " 
Let  us  put  it  directly,  If  /  die,  shall  I  live  again  ?      It 
is  not  worth  while  putting  it  as  a  speculative  question  : 
the  speculators  have  not  been  unanimous  nor  hearty 
in  their  answer.      Faith  in  immortality  has  in  point 
of  fact  entered    the  world    and  affected    human    life 
along  the  line  of  faith  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ  His 
Son.       Only  one  life  has  ever  won  the  victory  over 
death  :    only  one  kind  of  life  ever  can  win  it — that 
kind  which  was  in  Him,  which  is  in  Him,  which  He 
shares  with    all  whom    faith    makes    one  with    Him. 
That  is  our  hope,   to  be  really  members  of  Christ, 
living  with    a  life  which   comes  from  God    and  has 
already  vanquished  death.     God  has  given  to  us  eter- 
nal life,  and  this  life  is  in  His  Son.     Can  death  touch 
that  life  ?     Never.     The  confidence  of  Christ  Himself 
ought  to  be  ours.     If  we  live  by  Him  we  have  noth- 
ing to  fear.     **  He  that  eateth  My  flesh  and  drinketh 
My  blood  hath  eternal  life,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at 
the  last  day."      **  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a 
man  keep  My  word,  he  shall  never  see  death."    "  I  am 
the  Resurrection  and  the  Life :  he  that  believeth  in 
Me,  though  he  were  dead  yet  shall  he  live,  and  he 
that  liveth  and  believeth  in  Me,  shall  never  die."     Be- 
lievest  thou  this? 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM. 

"Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted 
of  the  devil.  And  when  He  had  fasted  forty  days  and  forty  nights, 
He  afterward  hungered.  And  the  tempter  came  and  said  unto 
Him,  If  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  become 
bread.  But  He  answered  and  said.  It  is  written,  Man  shall  not 
live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God.  Then  the  devil  taketh  Him  unto  the  Holy  City, 
and  he  set  Him  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and  saith  unto  Him, 
If  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  cast  Thyself  down  :  for  it  is  written. 
He  shall  give  His  angels  charge  concerning  Thee  ;  And  in  their 
hands  they  shall  bear  Thee  up,  lest  haply  Thou  dash  Thy  foot 
against  a  stone.  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Again  it  is  written.  Thou 
shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God.  Again,  the  devil  taketh  Him 
unto  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  showeth  Him  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world,  and  the  glory  of  them  ;  and  he  said  unto  Him, 
All  these  things  will  I  give  Thee,  if  Thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me.  Then  saith  Jesus  unto  him.  Get  thee  hence,  Satan  ; 
for  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  Him 
only  shalt  thou  serve.  Then  the  devil  leaveth  Him  ;  and,  behold, 
angels  came  and  ministered  unto  Him." — Matthew  iv.  i-ii. 

Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  all  tell  the  story  of  the 
temptation  of  Jesus  in  the  same  connexion  :  it  followed 
close  upon  His  baptism.  His  baptism  was  for  Jesus 
the  occasion  of  great  and  uplifting  experiences  ;  he  saw 
the  heavens  open,  and  the  Spirit  descending  and  abid- 
ing on  Him  ;  He  heard  the  heavenly  voice,  *'Thou  art 
My  beloved  Son  ;  in  Thee  I  am  well  pleased  ".  But  this 
hour  of  spiritual  exaltation  w^as  followed  by  a  period  of 
depression  and  conflict.     Was  it  possible  for  Jesus  to 

(189) 


I90  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

live  his  life  through  on  the  high  plane  to  which  it  had 
been  raised  at  His  baptism  ?  Could  He  go  back  into 
the  common  life  of  man,  with  all  its  disquieting  pos- 
sibilities, and  in  spite  of  the  tempting  alternatives 
which  it  presented,  in  spite  of  the  painful  pressure 
which  it  put  upon  Him,  maintain  the  consciousness 
and  the  character  of  the  Son  of  God  ?  This  was  the 
question  which  He  faced  in  the  wilderness.  A  mock- 
ing writer  on  the  life  of  Christ  says  of  another  situation 
in  it,  "  One  is  not  the  Son  of  God  every  day  ".  What 
the  temptation  story  shows  is  the  determination  of 
Jesus,  asserted  from  the  very  beginning,  in  the  face  of 
all  compulsions  and  seductions,  to  be  the  Son  of  God, 
and  nothing  but  the  Son,  every  day — to  be  true,  in  all 
that  the  Father  gave  Him  to  do,  to  the  heavenly  voice 
and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit. 

We  may  take  it  for  granted  that  Jesus  did  not  speak 
to  His  disciples  of  this  great  crisis  in  His  life  merely  to 
get  an  outlet  for  the  emotion  which  attended  it,  or  to 
gratify  curiosity  on  their  part  about  His  history.  He 
told  them  these  things  because  they  were  important 
for  them.  As  it  has  been  put,  these  are  not  the 
temptations  of  Jesus,  they  are  the  temptations  of  the 
Christ.  They  are  not  the  temptations  of  a  private 
person,  but  of  the  person  whose  calling  it  was  to 
establish  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  world ;  and  they 
have  the  interest  for  all  of  throwing  light  on  the  true 
nature  of  that  kingdom  by  exposing  alike  false  though 
seductive  conceptions  of  it,  and  false  though  alluring 
paths  which  might  be  supposed  to  lead  to  it.  It  is  a 
wrong  way  to  put  this  if  we  say  that  the  temptations 
are  not  personal,  but  official ;  there  is  no  proper  sense 
in  which  the  term  official  can  be  connected  with  Jesus. 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      191 

They  are  the  temptations  of  the  person  whose  calling 
it  was  to  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  they  recur 
to  every  one  who  is  interested  in  the  same  age-long 
task.  They  are  the  temptations  of  all  churches,  of  all 
Christian  workers,  of  all  who  have  ideals  in  their  life 
at  all.  It  is  necessary  to  be  on  our  guard  against  false 
ideals,  and  even  more  against  false  methods  of  pursuing 
true  ones.  It  is  this  which  gives  the  story  of  our 
Lord's  trial  and  victory  perennial  interest. 

I.  The  first  temptation  has  indeed  a  more  private  as- 
pect :  it  is  connected  with  the  fact  that  after  His  long  fast 
Jesus  hungered.  "  If  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  com-- 
mand  that  these  stones  become  bread."  The  Son  of 
God  and  hungry  !  the  tempter  seems  to  insinuate,  is  not 
this  a  contradiction  in  terms  ?  You  cannot  really  be  the 
Son  of  God,  if  your  life  is  exposed  to  privations  so  cruel. 
There  must  be  some  mistake  about  that  heavenly 
voice  :  you  must  have  dreamed  you  heard  it.  Re- 
nounce your  faith  in  a  heavenly  Father,  and  in  His 
unfailing  love  and  care,  and  help  yourself  in  any  way 
you  can.  To  read  the  temptation  thus  implies  of 
course  that  the  suggestion  to  turn  the  stones  to  bread 
is  a  mocking  one  :  the  assumption  is  that  the  thing 
cannot  be  done.  Certainly  we  cannot  do  it,  and  it  is 
because  we  cannot  that  this  temptation,  in  this  aspect 
at  all  events,  may  come  to  any  child  of  God.  We  have 
heard  in  the  Gospel  a  voice  from  heaven,  a  voice 
sealed  on  our  hearts  by  the  Spirit,  telling  us  that  we 
are  the  sons  of  God  :  can  it  be  true,  we  are  tempted 
to  ask,  when  poverty  comes  to  us,  or  hunger,  or  pain  ? 
Can  we  hold  to  the  heavenly  Father  under  such 
pressure,  or  since  He  has  not  given  us  the  power  to 
turn  the  stones  into  bread,  to  annul  every  physical 


192  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

evil,  must  we  renounce  Him,  like  Job,  and  die  ?  Must 
we  take  our  life  into  our  own  hands  as  though  God  were 
a  word  without  meaning  ?  Jesus  endured  this  tempta- 
tion and  overcame.  Even  under  the  pangs  of  hunger  he 
held  fast  not  simply  His  integrity  like  Job,  but  His  Son- 
ship.  His  relation  to  God  remained  deeper,  more 
vital,  more  certain  than  anything  that  could  befall  Him  ; 
no  privation  or  pain  whatsoever  would  make  Him  re- 
nounce God,  or  live  in  any  other  relation  to  Him  than 
that  of  a  trustful  and  obedient  child.  And  is  not  this 
power  to  assert  the  superior  reality  of  the  inward  and 
spiritual  against  all  that  is  outwardly  disconcerting 
the  very  pith  of  true  religion  ?  We  need  not  pretend 
to  understand  the  purpose  of  all  privations,  or  say  that 
we  can  justify  the  ways  of  God  with  man  to  the  last 
detail :  but  if  there  is  not  in  man  a  power  to  assert  his 
sonship  through  privations  and  in  spite  of  them,  our 
Lord  has  lived  in  vain. 

But  the  main  interest  of  this  temptation  is  wider. 
As  Son  of  God,  and  called  to  establish  His  Father's 
kingdom  in  the  world,  Jesus  was  called  at  the  same 
time  to  win  an  ascendency  over  men  for  God.  He 
looked  abroad  on  the  world,  especially  on  the  world 
as  it  was  to  be  seen  in  Palestine,  and  He  saw  various 
lines  along  which  such  ascendency  could  be  sought 
and  acquired.  The  very  first  was  the  one  which 
assailed  Him  in  this  temptation.  It  w^ould  be  easy  for 
Him  to  command  ascendency  over  multitudes,  and  to 
do  it  without  delay,  if  He  made  it  His  business  to  turn 
stones  into  bread.  If  He  made  bread  the  first  thing, 
the  foundation  of  the  kingdom — if  He  adopted  the 
principle  that  once  men's  physical  necessities  were 
supplied,  and  hunger,  cold,  and  toil  out  of  the  way,  the 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      193 

kingdom  would  come  of  itself— everything  would  be 
plain  sailing  for  Him.  This  was  a  real  temptation  to 
Jesus  just  because  He  knew  what  hunger  was,  and 
because  He  had  infinite  sympathy  with  the  poor.  He 
was  hungry  here  in  the  wilderness,  He  was  weary  and 
hungry  as  He  sat  by  Jacob's  well,  He  was  so  hungry 
in  the  last  week  of  His  life  that  He  would  gladly  have 
eaten  the  berries  from  a  tree  by  the  way  side.  He 
lays  extraordinary  emphasis  on  the  duty  of  charity ; 
it  is  the  unpardonable  sin,  which  leads  to  eternal 
punishment,  when  He  can  say  to  anyone  :  **  I  was  an 
hungered  and  ye  gave  Me  no  meat ".  Once,  moved 
with  compassion.  He  did  feed  five  thousand  men  in  a 
desert  place.  But  what  was  the  result?  It  was  that 
this  first  temptation  recurred  :  they  wanted  to  take 
Him  by  force  and  make  Him  their  king.  This  was 
the  kingdom  they  wanted,  a  kingdom  built  on  bread. 
But  it  was  not  the  kingdom  Jesus  had  come  to  set  up. 
He  withdrew  Himself  from  that  multitude,  and  retired 
to  pray  with  God  alone.  He  sent  out  the  Twelve  to 
face  the  rising  storm  on  the  lake,  and  in  laborious  toil 
and  imminent  danger  of  death  forget  this  spurious  hope. 
And  soon  after,  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum,  He 
spoke  the  searching  words  that  drove  the  bread-seeking 
disciples  from  Him  and  showed  the  true  basis  of  the 
kingdom.  "  Ye  seek  Me,  not  because  3^e  saw  the  signs, 
but  because  ye  did  eat  of  the  loaves  and  were  filled. 
Labour  not  for  the  meat  which  perisheth,  but  for  that 
which  endureth  unto  eternal  life."  Jesus  was  the 
friend  of  the  poor,  who  went  about  doing  good,  but 
He  felt  it  to  be  a  temptation  of  the  devil  to  base  His 
kingdom  on  bread,  and  to  count  upon  an  allegiance 
evoked  by  loaves  and  fishes. 


194  THE   WAY  EVERLASTING 

This  temptation  is  always  with  the  Church,  and  it  is 
not  the  less  a  temptation  that  there  are  many  at  the  pres- 
ent time  who  turn  it  into  an  accusation.  The  Church, 
we  are  constantly  being  told,  does  not  care  for  the 
poor  :  it  is  a  capitalist  institution.  People  may  starve 
for  all  it  will  do  to  help  them.  We  would  believe  in 
it  if  it  made  our  bread  its  first  care,  but  if  it  does  not, 
we  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Voices  like  these 
are  sometimes  the  modern  equivalent  of  the  voice 
which  whispered  to  Jesus  in  the  wilderness,  ''Com- 
mand that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  Go  about  the 
country  multiplying  loaves  and  fishes  all  the  time." 
The  answer  to  them  is  partly  to  say  that  they  are 
false ;  the  Church,  as  every  one  knows  who  knows 
anything  about  it,  does  care  for  the  poor.  Blot  out 
what  Christian  people  do  for  the  poor  in  any  great 
city,  and  how  much  would  remain  ?  But  partly  also 
it  is  to  point  out  that  the  demand  which  is  here  made 
upon  the  Church  is  one  to  which,  if  it  is  to  be  true  to 
Christ,  it  cannot  accede.  It  dare  not,  either  for  itself 
or  for  others,  contemplate  a  kingdom  of  God  founded 
upon  bread.  It  must  have  pity  for  the  poor — it  must 
feed  the  hungry,  clothe  the  naked,  visit  the  sick,  or  be 
lost  for  ever  ;  but  it  must  have  the  hardness  to  say  to 
itself  and  to  all  men,  even  though  they  are  poor,  Seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God ;  Labour  not  for  the  meat 
which  perisheth ;  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone. 
There  are  times  when  these  are  very  unpopular  things 
to  say,  and  when  there  is  therefore  a  strong  temptation 
not  to  say  them,  but  they  were  all  said  by  Jesus, 
What  comes  first  is  sonship  to  God,  faith  in  the  Father, 
the  love,  trust,  and  obedience  of  a  child ;  to  this, 
everything  else  is  to  be  postponed,  in  the  possessiou 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      195 

of  this  every  trial  is  to  be  overcome.  The  Church 
dare  not  enhst  under  the  banner  of  those  who  think 
that  a  programme  of  what  are  called  social  reforms — 
the  kind  of  reforms  which  can  be  carried  in  Parliament 
— will  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  cannot  do  this 
any  more  than  Jesus  could  enlist  under  the  banner  of 
those  who  would  have  made  Him  a  king  by  force.  It 
may  quite  well  be  its  duty  to  sympathize  with  such 
reforms  and  to  promote  them  ;  but  it  is  its  specific 
function  to  make  plain  that  in  the  kingdom  of  God  a 
perpetual  primacy  belongs  to  the  spiritual,  and  that  it 
may  be  the  trial  of  any  child  of  God,  in  humble  faith 
in  the  Father,  to  maintain  his  sonship  through  hunger, 
pain,  and  death. 

2.  The  second  temptation  is  of  quite  a  different 
kind.  As  Jesus  looked  out  upon  the  society  around 
Him,  He  saw  that  one  of  the  simplest  ways  of  winning 
ascendency  over  men  was  to  appeal  to  their  love  of 
the  marvellous.  If  He  only  dazzled  their  senses  suf- 
ficiently they  would  throng  to  His  feet,  and  He  would 
be  able  to  do  anything  with  them  He  pleased.  This  is 
what  is  imaginatively  put  in  the  temptation  of  the  pin- 
nacle. The  background  of  the  scene  (we  must  suppose) 
is  the  courts  of  the  temple,  thronged  with  worship- 
pers ;  and  as  Jesus  descends  through  the  air  from  the 
dizzy  height,  and  alights  among  them  uninjured,  they 
crowd  around  Him  and  hail  Him  enthusiastically  as 
the  Messianic  King.  We  know  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  this  was  in  principle  an  appeal  continually 
being  made  to  Jesus.  "Jews  demand  signs,"  says  St. 
Paul,  describing  the  habitual  temper  of  his  country- 
men. From  beginning  to  end  they  demanded  them 
from  Jesus.      "  They  came  and  tempting  tiim  a,ste^ 


196  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Him  to  show  them  a  sign  from  heaven."  "They 
mocked  Him  saying,  Let  Him  now  come  down  from 
the  cross  and  we  will  believe  Him."  The  idea  is  that 
miraculous  works,  dazzling,  overwhelming,  dumb- 
foundering,  are  the  basis  on  which  the  kingdom  of 
God  can  be  built.  Overpower  the  senses  of  men  with 
wonders,  and  you  will  win  their  souls  for  God.  This 
was  for  Jesus  radically  false,  and  it  contained  a 
temptation  which  He  steadily  resisted.  He  never 
worked  a  miracle  of  ostentation  or  display  :  His  mir- 
acles had  all  their  motive  in  love,  and  it  was  the  love 
in  them  which  bore  witness  to  God.  He  trusted  God, 
but  He  did  not  challenge  Him ;  the  works  that  He 
did  were  not  venturesome  audacities  of  His  own,  they 
were  the  works  that  the  Father  gave  Him  to  do.  He 
never  renounced  moral  sanity,  as  though  something 
could  be  done  for  God  beyond  its  limits  which  could 
not  be  done  within  them.  He  trusted  God,  certainly, 
but  He  knew  the  difference  between  faith  and  insane 
presumption,  and  He  knew  that  no  impression  made 
on  the  senses,  however  profound,  could  establish  God's 
sovereignty  in  the  spirit. 

This  temptation  also  has  its  lesson  for  all  who  are 
interested  to-day  in  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom. 
There  is  always  a  tendency  in  the  Church  to  trust  to 
methods  which  appeal  rather  to  the  senses  than  to  the 
soul,  or  which  are  believed  to  be  reaching  the  soul 
though  they  never  get  past  the  sense.  They  may  be 
cruder  or  more  refined,  sensational  or  connected  with 
the  symbolic  side  of  worship,  but  the  common  character 
of  all  is  that  they  fall  short  of  being  rational  and  spirit- 
ual. How  tempting  it  is  to  trust  to  such  impressions, 
as  though    the  coming  of  the    kingdom  were  really 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      197 

secured  by  them — to  trust,  for  example,  to  the  feeling 
of  awe  and  solemnity  which  comes  upon  us  as  we  enter 
a  great  cathedral,  or  to  the  thrill  which  passes  through 
us  as  we  listen  to  the  pure,  passionless  voice  of  a  boy 
singing,  **  As  pants  the  hart  for  water  brooks,"  or  to  the 
power  of  some  great  preacher's  eloquence,  or  to  the 
inexpHcable  influence  of  a  sacrament,  celebrated  with 
mysterious  reverence  and  splendour.  How  tempting 
it  is,  yet  how  completely  beside  the  mark !  The  only 
Church  which  claims  to  perform  a  miracle  as  the  very 
centre  of  its  worship  falls  whenever  it  makes  the  claim 
before  this  temptation.  To  turn  bread  and  wine,  under 
the  very  eyes  of  men,  into  the  body  and  blood,  soul 
and  divinity  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  to  do  it  with  mys- 
terious and  elaborate  ceremonial,  would  be  a  miracle 
as  astounding  as  for  Jesus  to  throw  Himself  down  from 
the  pinnacle  of  the  temple  and  to  light  on  earth  un- 
harmed— as  astounding,  and,  in  the  impression  it 
produced,  as  irrelevant  to  the  work  of  God.  No 
doubt  such  things  make  an  impression  and  have  an 
influence ;  but  they  are  not  the  influence  and  the 
impression  through  which  that  kingdom  of  God  can 
come  for  which  Jesus  lived  and  died.  How  little  He 
had  of  all  that  churches  are  tempted  to  trust  in  now ! 
How  little  there  is  in  the  Gospels  about  methods  and 
apparatus  !  Jesus  had  no  church  nor  hall ;  He  spoke 
in  the  synagogues  when  He  had  the  opportunity,  but 
as  willingly  and  prevailingly  in  the  fields  or  by  the 
the  seashore,  in  a  boat  or  a  private  house.  He  had 
no  choir,  no  vestments,  no  sacraments,  and  we  may 
well  believe  He  would  look  with  more  than  amazement 
upon  the  importance  which  many  of  His  diciples  now 
attach    to  such   things.      ''  He  spake  the  word  unto 


198  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

them/'  that  was  all.  The  trust  of  the  Church  in  other 
things  is  really  a  distrust  of  the  truth,  an  unwillingness 
to  believe  that  its  power  lies  in  itself,  a  desire  to  have 
something  more  irresistible  than  truth  to  plead  truth's 
cause;  and  all  these  are  modes  of  atheism.  Sometimes 
our  yielding  to  this  temptation  is  shown  in  the  apathy 
which  falls  upon  us  when  we  cannot  have  the  appar- 
atus we  crave,  sometimes  in  the  complacency  in  which 
we  clothe  ourselves  when  we  get  it  and  it  draws  a 
crowd.  This  is  precisely  the  kind  of  crowd  which 
Jesus  refused  to  draw.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not 
there,  nor  is  it  to  be  brought  by  such  appeals.  It  is 
not  only  a  mistake,  but  a  sin,  to  trust  to  attractions 
for  the  ear  and  the  eye,  and  to  draw  people  to  the 
church  by  the  same  methods  by  which  the}^  are  drawn 
to  places  of  entertainment.  What  the  evangelist  calls 
"  the  word  " — the  spiritual  truth,  the  message  of  the 
Father  and  of  His  kingdom — spoken  in  the  spirit  and 
enforced  by  the  spirit,  told  by  faith  and  heard  by  faith 
— is  our  only  real  resource,  and  we  must  not  be 
ashamed  of  its  simplicity. 

3.  The  last  of  our  Lord's  temptations  is  the  one 
which  has  been  most  variously  interpreted,  which  is 
another  way  of  saying  the  one  which  has  been  least 
certainl}^  understood.  The  tempter  takes  Jesus  to  a 
high  mountain,  shows  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  and  the  glory  of  them,  and  says,  "  All  these 
things  will  I  give  Thee,  if  Thou  wilt  fall  down 
and  worship  me  ".  It  is  easy  to  see  the  connexion  of 
this  temptation  with  the  baptism.  The  same  voice 
which  pronounced  Jesus  Son  had  also  pronounced  Him 
heir.  The  same  Psalm  which  says  to  the  Messiah, 
'*  Thou  art  My  Son,  to-day  have  I  begotten  Thee,"  says 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      199 

also,  *' Ask  of  Me,  and  I  will  give  Thee  the  heathen 
for  Thine  inheritance  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  for  Thy  possession  ".  Jesus  was  born  to  rule, 
and  He  was  conscious  of  it  in  the  very  depths  of  His 
being.  He  had  a  kingly  nature,  men  naturally  felt 
His  ascendency,  it  was  He  whose  right  it  was  to 
reign.  No  one  was  so  capable  of  using  power  well. 
All  that  He  saw  was  properly  His  inheritance,  and 
the  question  before  His  mind  in  the  wilderness  was 
how  He  was  to  obtain  effective  possession  of  it. 
How  was  He  to  get  a  foothold  in  the  world  as  it  was, 
from  which  He  might  advance  to  its  conquest  ?  As 
such  questions  stirred  in  His  mind,  and  He  looked 
out  on  the  world  which  was  to  be  the  scene  of  His 
sovereignty,  another  temptation,  another  delusive 
possibility  of  action,  was  presented  to  Him.  He  saw 
that  there  was  a  great  power  already  established  in 
the  earth  :  was  it  conceivable  that  if  He  recognized 
that  power  He  might  be  able  to  obtain  help  from  it  ? 
No  doubt  it  was  the  power  of  evil,  but  one  of  the 
terrible  things  which  experience  teaches  is  that  evil 
is  a  power.  It  wields  vast  resources,  it  can  offer  im- 
mense bribes.  In  Luke  the  tempter  is  represented 
as  saying,''  All  this  has  been  handed  over  to  me,  and  to 
whomsoever  I  will  I  give  it."  This  has  struck  some 
as  transparently  false,  but  if  it  were  transparently 
false  there  would  be  no  temptation  in  it.  The  possi- 
bility of  the  temptation  lies  in  the  two  facts  that  the 
sovereignty  over  the  world  belonged  of  right  to  Jesus, 
as  the  Son  and  representative  of  God,  and  that  an  im- 
mense and  actual  power  in  the  world  was  unmistakably 
wielded  by  evil.  Could  Jesus  make  any  use  of  that 
power  ?     Could  He,  in  order  to  obtain  a  footing  in  a 


200  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

world  where  evil  was  so  strongly  entrenched,  give  any 
kind  of  recognition  to  evil  ?  Could  He  compromise 
with  it,  acknowledging  that  it  had  at  least  a  relative 
or  temporary  right  to  exist,  and  making  use  of  it  till 
He  could  attain  a  position  in  which  He  would  be  able 
to  dispense  with  its  aid  ?  This  is  the  real  question  in 
the  third  temptation.  It  is  not  that  Jesus  was 
tempted  to  seek  a  worldly  instead  of  a  spiritual  king- 
dom, or  a  kingdom  based  on  force  or  fraud  instead  of 
love — a  kingdom  like  Rome  or  Parthia  instead  of 
heaven ;  it  is  that  He  is  tempted  to  accept  the  alliance 
of  evil  in  establishing  His  kingdom,  to  take  the  help 
of  the  devil  in  the  service  of  God.  But  to  get  the  Son 
of  God  to  admit  that  evil  had  to  be  squared  somehow, 
and, that  an  irreconcilable  attitude  to  it  was  impracti- 
cable, and  would  prevent  the  kingdom  of  God  from 
ever  getting  under  way,  would  be  to  defeat  His 
mission  altogether.  Hence  at  this  point  Jesus  repels 
the  tempter  with  passion — Get  thee  behind  Me,  Satan 
— as  feeling  how  powerful  was  the  temptation  and 
how  critical.  We  seem  to  hear  Him  saying  to  Him- 
self as  He  says  afterwards  to  all  His  disciples  :  **  All  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them  !  What 
shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  himself?  " 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  this  temptation  also 
remains  with  the  Church.  Evil  is  still  a  great  power 
in  the  world,  and  as  long  as  it  is  so  the  question  will 
continue  to  arise  whether  it  is  not  a  power  of  which 
we  can  make  some  use  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  It 
is  all  the  more  sure  to  arise  because  evil  is  strong 
enough  to  cause  great  trouble  and  suffering  to  those 
who  refuse  to  transact  with  it.      Hence  people  will  ask 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      201 

whether  there  is  no  way  in  which  we  can  take  the 
loan  of  it,  so  to  speak,  in  God's  service — no  method 
by  which  we  can  for  the  moment  recognize  it,  yet 
avail  ourselves  of  its  recognition  to  secure  its  defeat — 
no  philosophy  or  practical  skill  which  will  enable  us  to 
trade  on  its  capital  and  to  make  our  own  or  God's 
profit.  This  is  the  place  at  which  subtlety  may  deceive 
us,  but  simplicity  never  will.  Go  to  the  bottom,  as  a 
simple  mind  instinctively  does,  and  all  this  philosophiz- 
ing and  negotiating  with  evil  is  worshipping  the  Devil. 
That  is  not  what  it  is  called,  but  that  is  what  it  is. 
And  it  is  as  vain  as  it  is  wicked.  No  one  ever  makes 
anything  by  it.  The  Devil  is  an  egoist,  and  will  not 
do  any  man  a  good  turn  for  God's  sake.  If  anyone 
wishes  to  work  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  is  only 
one  possible  attitude  to  evil,  however  plausible  and 
powerful — the  attitude  of  simple  outright  defiance, 
which  owes  allegiance  to  God  alone. 

This  truth  has  to  be  applied  in  various  ways,  and 
will  hardly  be  applied  without  giving  offence.  There 
may  be  a  bad  man  in  the  Church's  environment,  who 
has  nevertheless  great  social  influence :  is  it  not  fair 
enough  to  get  his  financial  or  his  social  support  even 
for  the  cause  which  his  life  discredits  ?  May  we  not 
get  his  patronage  for  the  church  fair,  and  get  good  of 
it,  even  though  it  is  given  not  without  indifference  or 
contempt  ?  The  answer  of  the  Gospel  is  quite  un- 
equivocal :  to  accept  such  patronage  is  to  fall  down 
and  worship  the  Devil,  and  that  is  not  the  way  the 
kingdom  of  God  comes.  Or  there  may  be  a  bad  in- 
stitution in  our  environment :  the  liquor  interest,  or 
a  corrupt  interest  in  municipal  or  national  politics. 
Do  not  alienate  so  powerful  a  section  of  society,  we 


202  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

are  sure  to  be  told,  by  declaring  the  mind  of  Christ 
about  their  trade  or  their  conduct.  Recognize  their 
right  to  exist,  and  they  will  recognize  yours.  You 
will  do  more  good  in  the  long  run  by  acknowledging 
facts  than  by  knocking  your  head  against  a  wall. 
Certainly  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  desired  than 
that  facts  should  be  acknowledged ;  but  the  final  fact 
which  we  are  here  summoned  by  our  Lord  to  recog- 
nize is  the  fact  that  with  evil  He  can  make  no  compro- 
mise whatever ;  and  as  for  knocking  our  heads  against 
walls,  how  would  those  who  are  so  quick  to  use  such 
language  describe  the  way  in  which  He  came  by  His 
death  ?  Even  in  things  less  doubtful  we  have  to  take 
care  that  we  do  not  ally  the  Church  with  what  is  alien 
to  it,  and  especially  that  we  do  not  count  on  that 
alliance  for  its  strength.  There  are  plenty  of  people 
who  avow  that  they  have  little  faith  in  Christianity 
except  as  it  has  entered  into  alliance  with  the  spirit 
of  a  nation,  and  is  embodied  in  a  state  church ;  it  is 
its  political  prestige  which  gives  it  its  standing  ground, 
and  enables  it  to  discharge  its  function  in  the  national 
life.  This  is  precisely  what  the  Gospel  here  condemns. 
The  spirit  of  a  nation,  as  we  are  well  aware,  is  capable 
of  pride  and  selfishness,  of  violence  and  inhumanity ; 
and  the  strength  of  the  spiritual  can  never  be  derived 
from  so  ambiguous  a  relation.  The  Church  exists, 
not  to  be  quickened  by  the  spirit  of  any  nation,  how- 
ever great,  but  to  embody  the  wider  and  greater  spirit 
of  humanity,  nay  the  very  spirit  of  God.  It  is  always 
being  tempted  to  seek  the  alliance  and  patronage  of 
things  lower  than  itself — of  the  things  that  have 
power  in  this  world  :  wealth,  rank,  social  distinction, 
political  status.     And  in  all  such  cases,  it  is  the  lower 


WRONG  ROADS  TO  THE  KINGDOM      203 

which  bribes  the  higher  and  takes  advantage  of  it ; 
we  fall  down  and  for  the  vain  help  He  promises  wor- 
ship the  Prince  of  this  world,  forgetting  that  He  alone 
can  be  our  help  Who  claims  our  undivided  allegiance 
for  Himself. 

Such  were  the  temptations  of  the  Son  of  God  which 
He  anticipated  and  vanquished  in  the  opening  of  His 
career :  such  still  are  the  temptations  of  His  Church, 
and  of  all  who  as  sons  of  God  are  workers  together 
with  Him.  That  is  why  we  think  and  speak  of  them 
still.  When  they  come  upon  us,  let  us  set  the  Lord 
always  before  us  :  not  despairing  of  God  in  trial,  nor 
promising  ourselves  and  others  that  physical  trials 
will  cease ;  not  presuming  on  God,  nor  trying  by 
hypnotizing  men's  senses  to  win  their  spirits  for  Him  ; 
not  shutting  our  eyes  to  the  power  of  evil  in  the 
world,  but,  conscious  of  the  sovereign  power  of  God, 
bidding  it  defiance  in  His  name.  It  is  as  we  follow 
Jesus  thus  that  we  shall  become  partakers  not  only 
in  His  tribulation  and  in  His  patience  but  also  in  His 
kingdom. 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES. 

"  Take  heed  and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  the 
Sadducees."— Matthew  xvi.  6. 

The  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  appear  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter  asking  Jesus  to  show  them  a  sign 
from  heaven.  Their  request  is  refused.  Jesus  had 
wrought  wonders  among  them  already  which  ought 
to  have  been  more  effective  than  they  were.  "  If  the 
mighty  works  which  were  done  among  you  had  been 
done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  they  would  have  repented 
long  ago."  Instead  of  working  more  miracles  gratu- 
itously, He  left  them  and  departed,  and  we  cannot  feel 
too  strongly  that  when  He  goes  away  the  evidences  of 
Christianity  vanish  with  Him.  If  He  is  out  of  our  sight 
we  can  have  no  idea  either  of  what  it  is  or  of  what  it 
rests  upon.  In  the  silence  which  followed  this  un- 
genial  encounter,  our  Lord  seems  to  have  brooded 
over  the  antipathy  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees. 
What  was  the  cause  of  it  ?  What  was  it  in  their  spirit 
and  temper  that  made  them  so  unresponsive,  so  un- 
sympathetic to  Him  ?  Whatever  it  was.  He  speaks  of 
it  here  as  a  leaven,  and  warns  His  disciples  against  it. 
Leaven  is  a  figure  for  something  which  works  secretly 
and  by  way  of  infection.  We  are  familiar  with  the 
idea  of  inoculation  as  a  protective  against  disease,  but 
there  is  such  a  thing  also  as  being  rendered  proof 
against  health-giving  power.     The  man  who  is  inocu- 

(204) 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   205 

lated  with  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sad- 
ducees — the  man  who  has  taken  into  his  spiritual 
nature  the  virus  of  their  habits  and  temper — becomes 
immune  in  the  presence  of  Jesus.  He  is  not  affected 
as  a  human  soul  ought  to  be  affected.  He  is  not  im- 
pressed otherwise  than  as  the  Pharisees  or  Sadducees 
themselves  were  impressed.  He  unconsciously  and 
securely  defies  the  influence  of  Jesus,  as  one  who  has 
been  vaccinated,  for  instance,  unconsciously  and  se- 
curely defies  the  contagion  of  smallpox.  It  is  the  un- 
happiness  of  falling  into  such  a  condition  that  we 
are  warned  of  in  the  text. 

When  Jesus  spoke,  the  Pharisees  were  more  numer- 
ous than  the  Sadducees  and  more  powerful,  and  prob- 
ably the  need  to  beware  of  them  was  the  greater.  In 
its  essence,  Pharisaism  is  virtue  which  involves  the 
sense  of  superiority  to  others,  and  is  therefore  destitute 
of  redeeming  power.  The  Pharisee  is  a  person  who 
is  complacent  about  himself,  and  despises  human 
nature.  In  the  Church,  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  is 
apt  to  become  potent  when  questions  of  doctrine  and 
worship  take  precedence  of  life.  It  is  the  temper 
which  indulges  itself  in  the  idea  that  ive  are  the  true 
people  of  God ;  we  hold  the  true  Catholic  or  the  true 
evangelical  doctrine  ;  we  believe  in  the  incarnation  and 
the  atonement,  in  resurrection  and  judgment,  in  the 
inspiration  and  the  infallibility  of  Scripture  ;  we  believe 
in  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  obligation  of 
worship ;  we  cannot  but  look  down  with  a  pious 
shudder  on  all  that  is  sceptical,  heretical,  unbelieving  ; 
we  instinctively  keep  ourselves  to  ourselves  in  their 
presence.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  goodness  of  this  type 
can  never  help  others,  and  that  it  is  remote  from  every- 


2o6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

thing  we  see  in  Jesus.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
it  is  equally  hateful  to  God  and  man.  But  it  has  been 
exposed  so  often  and  so  completely  that  it  is  discredited 
as  soon  as  named.  The  Pharisees  are  not  a  proud 
and  popular  sect  now,  by  whom  we  may  easily  be 
infected  unawares ;  the  real  danger  lies  with  the 
Sadducees,  and  it  is  their  leaven  against  which  we 
have  to  be  on  our  guard.  What  is  it,  then,  and  what 
are  the  symptons  of  its  working  ? 

In  the  time  of  Jesus,  the  Sadducees  were  the 
priestly  aristocracy  in  Jerusalem.  They  had  the 
temple  and  its  vast  revenues  in  their  hands,  and  all 
their  worldly  interests  were  bound  up  v/ith  the  main- 
tenance of  the  existing  religious  order.  They  were 
also  charged  with  the  administration  of  all  national 
affairs,  and  especially  of  all  arrangements  between 
their  own  and  foreign  nations.  They  professed  the 
true  religion,  of  course ;  indeed  they  were  its  official 
representatives  ;  but  they  were  in  contact  with  a  larger 
outside  life,  and  they  had  to  maintain  a  modus  vivendi 
with  it.  In  all  this  there  were  temptations  to  which 
the  Sadducees  succumbed ;  and  the  way  in  which  they 
explained  and  justified  their  transactions  and  compro- 
mises— the  Sadducean  philosophy,  or  spirit,  or  temper 
— is  the  contagion  we  are  to  avoid.  In  what  way, 
then,  let  us  ask,  did  it  show  its  working  ? 

I.  In  the  first  place,  it  showed  itself  in  a  tendency 
to  secularize  religion  ;  that  is,  to  acknowledge  it  simply 
as  part  of  the  existing  order  of  society,  to  give  it  its 
place  and  to  keep  it  in  its  place.  Religion  for  the 
Sadducees  was  an  institution,  not  an  inspiration.  It 
was  part  of  an  established  system  of  social  order  with 
which  all  their  worldly  interests  were  bound  up,  and 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   207 

their  one  concern  was  to  maintain  the  existing  equi- 
librium. Living  religion  the  Sadducees  dreaded.  A 
religious  movement  perturbed  them,  and  they  did  not 
know  what  to  make  of  it.  When  the  Christian  religion 
began  to  put  forth  its  irrepressible  expansive  power 
after  the  Resurrection,  we  are  told  that  "  they  doubted 
whereunto  this  would  grow".  They  did  not  want 
growing  things  at  all  in  that  sphere.  A  religion  that 
grew,  that  operated  as  a  creative  or  re-creative  power, 
that  initiated  new  movements  in  the  soul  or  in  society 
— a  religion  that  gave  men  new  and  infinite  conceptions 
of  duty,  making  them  capable  of  self-dedication  and 
martyrdom,  so  that  you  could  never  tell  what  mad 
disturbing  thing  they  would  do  or  try — a  religion  that 
disclosed  another  world,  and  made  a  power  so  incom- 
mensurable with  all  present  interests  as  immortality 
a  present  motive  in  the  lives  of  common  men — such  a 
religion  the  Sadducees  could  only  regard  as  the  enemy. 
They  did  not  like  it ;  they  had  no  mind  to  it  and  no 
time  for  it.  Their  minds  and  their  energies  were  ab- 
sorbed in  keeping  up  the  social  equilibrium  which  was 
so  advantageous  for  them  against  pressures  w^hich 
they  understood — Rome  on  the  one  hand,  and  fanatical 
nationalism  on  the  other  ;  and  the  new  and  incalculable 
force  which  they  could  not  help  suspecting  in  Jesus 
was  too  much.  They  were  more  than  willing  to  give 
religion  the  formal  acknowledgment  which  its  place 
in  the  social  order  required,  but  a  religion  which  for 
anything  they  could  tell  might  explode  the  social  order 
was  something  with  which  they  could  hold  no  terms. 
This  attitude  to  the  Christian  faith — this  particular 
working  of  the  Sadducean  leaven — is  not  confined  to 
ancient  times.     It  is  the  peril,  in  the  first  instance,  of 


2o8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

an  established  clergy,  with  vested  interests  in  things 
as  they  are.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  by  an  estab- 
lished clergy  the  clergy  of  a  state  church  only ;  the 
danger  is  real  wherever  the  profession  of  Christianity 
has  settled  into  the  customs  of  a  country,  and  vested 
interests  of  all  sorts  have  become  interwoven  with  it. 
It  is  real  for  all  men  who  have  been  born  and  brought 
up  in  the  Church,  and  who  continue  to  give  the  Chris- 
tian institution  that  formal  recognition  which  decorum 
requires,  but  who  find  their  life  apart  from  this  so 
engrossing,  so  exacting,  and  so  rewarding,  that  the 
institution  ceases  to  be  vital,  and  their  religion  becomes 
the  only  dead  and  uninteresting  thing  about  them. 
They  may  feel  like  the  ancient  Sadducees  that  they 
have  no  choice.  It  takes  them  all  their  time  to  maintain 
their  position.  Every  atom  of  their  mental  and  moral 
capital  is  invested  in  their  worldly  concerns,  and  they 
feel  as  if  they  could  not  keep  their  place  if  they  with- 
drew the  smallest  fraction  of  their  interest.  But  the 
result  is  that  a  man  living  this  life  may  be  startled 
some  day  to  discover  that  he  has  no  religion.  When 
he  sees  the  real  thing  in  another  soul  it  frightens  him. 
He  hears  some  one  pray,  and  feels  at  the  same  instant 
how  true  and  vital  it  is,  and  how  impossible  for  him. 
He  cannot  speak  to  God  any  more  than  he  can  speak 
Chinese ;  the  leaven  of  the  Sadducees  has  stupefied 
if  it  has  not  killed  him.  Beware  of  letting  any  insti- 
tution, or  the 'observances  of  any,  even  what  we  call 
sacred,  custom  take  the  place  in  your  life  of  direct  com- 
munion with  God  and  Christ. 

2.  Another  way  in  which  the  working  of  the  Sad- 
ducean  leaven  is  shown  is  this  :  it  comes  out  as  a 
tendency  to  prefer  what  we  call  experience  to  inspira- 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   209 

tion,  the  wisdom  of  life  to  the  authority  of  the  word  of 
God.  Experience  is  a  great  word,  but  it  makes  a  great 
difference  where  a  man  makes  his  experience  ;  whether 
it  is  in  the  world,  without  God,  as  St.  Paul  says  of 
the  heathen ;  or  whether  it  is  with  God,  in  the  world. 
If  we  get  our  experience  in  the  world,  without  God,  it 
will  certainly  betray  before  long  an  aversion  to  the 
word  of  God,  Far  back  in  the  history  of  Israel,  as 
early  almost  as  600  b.c,  long  before  the  Sadducean 
name  was  known,  we  can  see  clearly  the  workings  of 
the  Sadducean  leaven.  Ezekiel  heard  his  fellow 
countrymen  by  the  banks  of  the  Chebar  saying,  **  We 
will  be  as  the  heathen,  as  the  families  of  the  countries, 
to  serve  wood  and  stone  "  (Ezek.  xx.  32).  They  knew  in 
their  hearts  that  they  were  not  really  as  the  heathen, 
or  they  could  never  so  much  as  have  formed  this 
thought.  God  had  revealed  Himself  to  them,  and  that 
revelation  had  fixed  for  them  the  high  responsibilities 
which  the  knowledge  of  God  always  brings.  For  the 
exiles  by  the  Chebar  they  were  only  too  high.  It  is 
not  practicable,  they  said,  to  live  at  the  level  to  which 
the  voice  of  God  through  the  prophet  calls  us  ;  in  the 
name  of  common  sense  let  us  say  so,  and  resolve  to 
live  at  another  level ;  let  us  be  like  the  heathen,  the 
families  of  the  countries,  and  serve  wood  and  stone  ; 
let  us  give  up  the  irrational  claim  to  be  a  people  speci- 
ally taught  of  God  ;  let  us  take  our  chance,  and  sink  or 
swim  with  mankind.  It  is  quite  easy  to  put  a  liberal 
and  philosophical  aspect  on  such  thoughts,  and  to  but- 
tress them  by  appeals  to  the  teaching  of  comparative 
religion,  and  so  forth.  The  Sadducees  did  it  constantly. 
They  were  brought  into  contact  with  foreign  nations, 
and    especially   with  that   gifted   nation    the    Greeks. 

14 


2IO  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

They  saw  how  wonderfully  the  Greeks  had  mastered 
life,  how  much  they  made  of  it,  how  brilliantly  they 
reproduced  it  in  their  art,  how  profoundly  they  criti- 
cized it  in  their  poetry  and  philosophy  ;  and  they  al- 
most involuntarily  fell  to  asking.  Why  should  we  be 
so  conceited  as  to  claim  a  place  apart  as  a  people  of 
God,  with  a  revelation  of  God  not  made  to  others  ? 
yes,  and  to  burden  ourselves  besides  with  the  responsi- 
bility of  hving  up  to  it  ?  Let  us  lose  ourselves  in  the 
race,  and  stand  or  fall  with  it.  We  cannot  digest  the 
idea  of  the  supernatural.  We  can  neither  think  out 
nor  live  out  the  idea  that  God  has  given  a  special 
revelation,  involving  special  responsibilities,  to  us. 

There  is  no  man  living  who  has  not  been  conscious 
of  this  working  of  the  Sadducean  leaven  in  his  own 
veins.  In  the  Church  we  have  all  been  brought  up  to 
believe  in  revelation  and  in  inspiration.  We  have 
been  taught  to  believe  that  God  speaks  to  us  in  the 
Bible,  and  especially  in  Christ,  as  He  speaks  nowhere 
else  in  the  world,  and  that  there  is  an  authority  here 
against  the  truth  and  supremacy  of  which  there  is  no 
appeal.  But  is  this  all  that  is  to  be  said  ?  I  venture 
to  put  it  more  strongly.  I  venture  to  say,  speaking  of 
those  who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  Church,  that 
we  have  not  only  been  taught,  but  have  experienced, 
the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  the  presence  of  God  in 
it  speaking  by  His  Spirit  to  our  hearts.  We  can  re- 
member the  time  when  our  conscience  was  subdued 
and  quickened  by  the  words  which  revealed  the  awful 
holiness  of  God.  We  can  remember  when  the  words 
of  Jesus  fell  on  our  hearts  in  the  glory  of  their  grace 
and  truth,  and  we  knew  that  they  were  words  of 
eternal  life.     Dare  we  ever  go  back  upon    these  ex- 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   211 

periences  ?  Dare  we  try  to  evade  the  responsibilities 
they  create  ?  It  cannot  be.  No  matter  how  plausible, 
how  large-minded  it  may  seem  to  say,  **  We  will  be 
like  other  people,  take  our  chance,  sink  or  swim  with 
our  kind  "  ;  our  responsibility  is  fixed  by  these  experi- 
ences of  revelation,  and  it  is  a  Sadducean  leaven  which 
tempts  us  to  evade  this  truth.  No  doubt,  a  man  is  not 
a  child,  and  as  we  know  more  we  read  our  Bibles  with 
other  eyes  ;  but  the  child's  impression  of  the  word  of 
God  and  its  authority  is  unchangeably  right ;  and  all 
that  deadens  our  sense  of  responsibility  in  relation  to 
it,  all  that  tempts  us  to  plead  experience  against  its 
practicability,  all  that  would  discount  its  inexorable 
judgments  or  qualify  its  infinite  grace,  is  Sadducean 
poison.  There  are  many  examples  to  show  us  to  what 
it  leads.  The  denial  of  a  special  presence  of  God  in 
Scripture  ends  inevitably  in  the  denial  of  a  special 
presence  of  God  in  Christ.  When  the  Bible  is  just 
another  book,  Christ  is  just  another  man.  And  the 
spirit  which  can  show  Him  to  His  place  among  the 
other  spiritual  luminaries  of  the  world  is  more  than 
half  prepared  to  ignore  Him  altogether.  It  was  the 
Sadducees  at  the  beginning  who  convinced  themselves 
that  there  was  no  room  in  the  same  world  both  for 
Christ  and  them,  and  that  is  still  what  the  Sadducean 
temper  comes  to. 

One  mode  in  which  this  tendency  to  disparage 
revelation  comes  out,  even  in  what  ought  to  be 
Christian  preaching  and  teaching,  is  distrust  of  the 
great  things  in  the  Gospel  as  mysterious.  The  avowed 
aim  of  many  who  plead  the  cause  of  Christianity  is  to 
be  bright,  practical,  rational,  attractive ;  to  meet  people 
on  their  own  ground.     Under  the  guidance  of  such 


212  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

aims  the  world  of  New  Testament  truth  too  readily 
contracts ;  we  hear  nothing  of  the  atonement,  of  the 
new  life  in  Christ,  of  immortality  and  eternal  judgment. 
With  the  narrower  conception  of  the  realities  with 
which  it  has  to  deal,  the  Church  soon  comes  to  have 
lower  ends  and  with  them  lower  means ;  it  ceases  to 
have  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term  a  Divine  or  Christian 
calling ;  it  lapses  into  a  more  refined  piece  of  the  world, 
and  sometimes  into  futile  efforts  to  compete  with  the 
world  on  ground  of  the  world's  choosing.  I  do  not 
say  a  word  against  the  development  of  the  social,  the 
institutional,  or  the  philanthropic  side  of  Church  work  ; 
but  Christianity  lives  by  the  supernatural  and  eternal, 
and  all  that  obscures  this  or  thrusts  it  into  the  back- 
ground is  the  leaven  of  the  Sadducees  against  which 
we  are  here  warned. 

3.  There  is  one  other  point  to  refer  to,  on  which 
the  New  Testament  lays  particular  emphasis.  The 
Sadducees  are  described  as  people  who  say  that  there 
is  no  resurrection,  and  that  angel  and  spirit  are  words 
without  meaning.  They  not  only  denied  immortality, 
they  derided  it.  They  invented  the  story  of  the  woman 
who  had  had  sevenihusbands,  and  asked  whose  wife  she 
would  be  in  the  resurrection.  It  was  invented  to  leave 
the  laugh  on  the  Sadducean  side  in  their  discussions 
with  the  Pharisees,  but  the  laugh  is  not  much  to  have 
on  your  side  in  questions  about  God  and  man  and 
human  destiny.  The  Sadducean  objections  to  im- 
mortality, as  raising  absurdly  unanswerable  questions, 
no  doubt  seemed  to  them,  as  they  still  seem  to  many, 
truly  philosophical — the  inevitable  refusal  by  acute 
and  enlightened  minds  of  impossible  ideas  ;  but  accord- 
ing to  Jesus  they  rested  on  a  two-fold  ignorance.  **  Ye 
do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures,  nor  the  power  of 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   213 

God."  The  Scriptures  mean,  of  course,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  and  according  to  Jesus  there  is  a  re- 
velation of  immortality  there.  There  is  a  revelation  of 
immortality  because  there  is  a  revelation  of  God  entering 
into  a  relation  of  friendship  with  men  so  intimate  that 
He  consents  to  be  called  their  God.  "  I  am  the  God  of 
Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob."  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  may  never  themselves  have  understood  all  that 
the  friendship  of  God  involved  :  they  may  never  have 
suspected  that  life  from  the  dead  was  in  that  word. 
But  Jesus  understood.  He  knew  that  the  friendship 
of  God  was  something  which  time  could  not  exhaust 
and  against  which  death  was  powerless.  He  lived  and 
died  believing  in  immortality,  because  in  life  and  in 
death  He  knew  the  Father.  The  supreme  utterances 
of  Scripture — those  words  in  which  the  human  spirit 
has  revealed  once  for  all  what  it  is  capable  of — illustrate 
the  mind  of  Jesus  here.  **  Nevertheless,  I  am  continu- 
ally with  Thee  ;  Thou  hast  holden  me  by  my  right  hand. 
Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  Thy  counsel,  and  afterward 
receive  me  unto  glory."  *'  I  am  persuaded  that  neither 
death  nor  life  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  "They 
shall  never  perish  ...  no  one  is  able  to  pluck  out  of 
the  Father's  hand."  Those  who  know  what  God  is  to 
man,  and  only  they,  are  in  a  position  to  speak  about 
immortahty.  But  no  one  ever  knew  this  as  Jesus; 
and  accordingly,  for  those  who  understand  it,  the  word 
and  faith  of  Jesus,  as  arguments  for  immortality,  out- 
weigh the  scepticism  of  all  lower  minds.  To  be 
ignorant  of  God,  the  God  whose  relations  with  men 
are  revealed  in  Scripture,  is  to  be  out  of  count  when 
immortality  is  in  question. 

The  other  kind  of  ignorance  to  which  scepticism  is 


214  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

due  is  described  by  Jesus  as  ignorance  of  the  power  of 
God.  The  world  of  nature  and  of  natural  relations,  in 
which  we  live  at  present,  has  evidently  no  room  for 
immortality ;  and  the  Sadducees  drew  the  inference 
that  because  we  cannot  be  immortal  in  this  world,  or 
in  a  world  which  simply  reproduces  this,  therefore  we 
cannot  be  immortal  at  all.  But  this  is  to  make  the  pre- 
sent world  the  measure  of  the  power  of  God,  and  it  is 
against  this  that  Jesus  protests.  The  truth  is  that  the 
present  world — nature  as  we  call  it — is  so  far  from  de- 
fining God's  power  that  what  it  suggests  to  a  living 
mind  is  rather  its  unsearchableness  and  infinity.  This 
is  the  key  to  the  passage  in  which  St.  Paul,  in  a  discus- 
sion of  the  resurrection  body,  dwells  on  the  boundless 
variety  and  wealth  of  nature ;  the  God  who  has  such 
resources  at  His  disposal  cannot  be  embarrassed  in  pro- 
viding for  the  immortality  of  man.  It  is  the  key  also 
to  one  of  the  most  wonderful  passages  in  Job,  where, 
after  a  sublime  contemplation  of  the  greatness  of  God 
in  nature,  he  concludes  :  "  Lo,  these  are  but  the  out- 
skirts of  His  ways  :  And  how  small  a  whisper  do  we 
hear  of  Him  !  But  the  thunder  of  His  power  who  can 
understand  ?  "  God  can  sustain  man's  Hfe  in  another 
order  or  mode  of  being  to  which  the  Sadducean  con- 
undrums about  the  Resurrection  do  not  apply ;  and  it  is 
such  an  order,  not  the  perpetuation  of  the  present,  to 
which  the  hope  of  immortahty  refers. 

The  question  of  immortality  is  in  some  respects  a 
very  simple  one.  It  is  the  question  how  much  God 
can  or  will  give  to  man,  and  how  much  man  is  willing 
or  able  to  receive  from  God.  No  one  can  answer  it 
decisively  but  one  who  has  true  thoughts  both  of  God 
and  man.  This  is  what  makes  the  answer  of  Jesus  so 
important.     And  everything  that  prompts  or  fosters 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SADDUCEES   215 

unworthy-  thoughts  of  either — everything  which  re- 
presents God  as  powerless  or  ungenerous,  and  man 
as  insignificant  or  contemptible — everything  which  dis- 
credits the  idea  of  union  and  communion  between  the 
human  and  the  Divine — is  important  too.  It  is  im- 
portant because  it  is  the  leaven  of  the  Sadducees  by 
which  our  spiritual  nature  is  benumbed  and  rendered 
insensible  to  all  that  God  means  toward  us  in  Christ 
and  can  do  for  us  through  Him.  Surely  we  do  not 
need  to  be  told  how  many  secret  allies  in  our  souls 
conspire  with  the  tendency  to  believe  that  death  ends 
all.  All  our  natural  indolence,  all  our  reluctance  to 
make  spiritual  efforts,  all  our  unwillingness  to  conquer 
truth  and  goodness  from  nature,  and  to  live  in  God 
always,  are  on  this  side.  So  is  our  willingness  to  re- 
duce the  living  God  to  a  stream  of  tendency,  and  to 
deny  eternal  judgment  because  we  do  not  see  how  we 
could  execute  it  justly,  or  because  it  is  disproportionate 
to  so  worthless  a  being  as  man.  All  this  is  the  leaven 
of  the  Sadducees,  to  be  purged  out  by  disciples  of  Christ. 
If  we  ask  v/hether  there  is  not  an  antidote  for  it,  the 
answer  can  only  be  given  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  Abide 
in  me.  Jesus  was  no  Sadducee.  He  believed  in  the 
living  God  and  in  a  living  religion  which  should  make 
all  things  new.  He  believed  in  revelation  :  He  heard 
the  voice  of  the  living  Father  in  the  Scriptures,  and  so 
may  we  if  our  ears  are  not  dulled  with  sophistry  or 
secularity  or  complacency.  He  believed  in  immor- 
tality. He  lived  and  died  believing  in  it,  and  He  said 
to  His  own,  **  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also  ".  To  keep 
our  hearts  against  all  these  debilitating,  deleterious, 
and  in  the  long  run  fatal  tendencies,  there  is  but  one 
thing  we  can  do  :  abide  in  Christ,  and  let  His  words 
abide  in  us. 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT. 

"  If  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fellowship  one 
with  another,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin."— I  John  i.  7. 

This  is  one  of  the  passages  in  Scripture  in  which  the 
language  is  so  spiritual,  and  so  remote  from  that  which 
we  use  in  daily  life,  that  it  is  apt  to  leave  no  impres- 
sion on  our  minds.  We  have  no  inclination  to  dispute 
it,  but  it  does  not  arrest  us.  If  we  do  not  think  of  it, 
it  sounds  familiar,  but  it  grows  strangely  unfamiliar 
if  we  try  to  realize  what  it  means.  I  have  heard  an 
eminent  scholar  express  impatience  with  the  first 
epistle  of  John  as  a  whole;  it  seemed  to  him,  he  said, 
the  innocent  prattle  of  a  good  old  man,  not  to  be  too 
seriously  followed.  But  a  scholar  much  more  eminent 
— perhaps  the  most  distinguished  New  Testament 
scholar  of  the  last  generation,  Dr.  Hort— characterized 
this  same  book  as  the  most  passionate  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  the  book,  if  our  minds  were  only  at 
home  in  the  region  in  which  it  moves,  which  says  the 
last  word  about  all  the  great  things  in  the  Christian 
religion  ;  the  simplest  if  you  will,  and  the  most  free 
from  effort,  but  also  the  most  profound,  the  most 
searching,  and  the  most  impassioned  of  all. 

This  text  brings  before  us  two  of  the  great  experi- 
ences and  privileges  of  Christians,  and  the  condition 
on  which  they  depend.     These  experiences  are,  first, 

(216) 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  217 

mutual  fellowship,  and  second,  continuous  sanctifica- 
tion.  This  interpretation  of  the  Apostle's  language 
has  indeed  been  disputed.  The  words  '*We  have 
fellowship  one  with  another  "  have  been  supposed  to 
refer  not  to  the  fellowship  of  Christians  among  them- 
selves, but  to  the  fellowship  of  Christians  with  God, 
the  "  we  "  representing  under  one  term  God  and  the 
writer  of  this  letter  and  those  for  whom  he  speaks; 
and  the  words  ''  the  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin  "  have  been  interpreted  not  of  continu- 
ous sanctification  or  progress  in  holiness,  but  of  the 
annulling  of  the  responsibility  for  sin;  in  theological 
language,  they  have  been  taken  to  refer  to  justifica- 
tion, not  sanctification.  When  it  comes  to  experience, 
the  things  which  are  here  distinguished  are  never 
separated.  The  mutual  fellowship  of  Christians  is  a 
fellowship  with  the  Father  and  wnth  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  and  there  is  no  justification  known  to  Scripture 
which  does  not  sanctify,  nor  any  sanctification  which 
does  not  rest  on  a  fundamental  annulling  of  the  re- 
sponsibility for  sin.  But  though  this  makes  the  dif- 
ference of  interpretation  practically  unimportant,  I 
believe  the  way  in  which  I  put  it  at  first  is  that  which 
truly  represents  the  mind  of  St.  John  :  the  experiences 
in  which  it  comes  out  that  a  certain  condition  is  being 
fulfilled  are  the  fellowship  of  Christians  with  each 
other  and  their  progressive  sanctification.  The  con-/^ 
dition  on  which  these  experiences  depend  is  that  of 
walking  in  the  light  as  God  is  in  the  light.  Following 
the  order  in  the  text,  I  shall  speak  first  of  what  is 
meant  by  this  condition. 

I.  If  we  walk   in  the  light  as  He  is   in  the   light. — 
Light  and  darkness  are  words  which  the  Apostle  uses 


2i8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

both  in  the  Gospel  and  the  epistle,  but  which  he  never 
explains.  Partly  they  do  not  need  explanation  and 
partly  they  do  not  admit  of  it.  We  feel  the  freedom 
with  which  they  are  used  when  he  says  in  one  sen- 
tence that  God  is  light,  and  in  the  next  that  God  is  in 
the  light.  We  feel  that  in  some  aspects  light  and 
darkness  might  be  regarded  as  equivalent  to  holiness 
and  sin,  but  the  text  itself  is  enough  to  show  that  they 
are  not  to  be  simply  identified.  The  Christian  con- 
scious of  sin  is  called  by  the  Apostle  to  walk  in  the 
light  as  God  is  in  the  light  in  order  that  the  blood  of 
Jesus  may  cleanse  him  from  all  sin.  What  is  sug- 
gested by  **  light "  throughout  the  passage  is  some- 
thing absolutely  luminous  and  transparent,  in  which 
there  is  no  concealment  and  no  need  for  any.  To  say 
that  God  is  light  is  to  say  for  one  thing  that  in  God 
there  is  nothing  to  hide  :  if  He  is  dark,  it  is  with  excess 
of  bright ;  it  is  because  He  dwells  in  light  that  is  in- 
accessible, not  because  there  is  anything  in  Him  which 
of  its  own  nature  craves  obscurity.  This  is  the  line 
on  which  our  thoughts  are  led  by  the  following  verses, 
where  the  opposite  of  walking  in  the  light  is  evidently 
hiding  sin,  or  denying  that  we  have  sinned.  It  is 
some  kind  of  secrecy — which  no  doubt  has  its  motive 
in  sin — that  is  meant  by  darkness,  and  this  gives  us 
the  key  to  walking  in  the  light.  To  walk  in  the  light 
means  to  live  a  life  in  which  there  is  nothing  hidden, 
nothing  in  which  we  are  insincere  with  ourselves^ 
nothing  in  which  we  seek  to  impose  upon  others. 
We  may  have,  and  no  doubt  we  will  have,  both  sin 
and  the  sense  of  sin  upon  us — "if  we  say  that  we 
have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves  and  the  truth  is  not 
in  us  " — but  we  may  walk  in  the  light  nevertheless,  if 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  219 

we  deal  truly  with  our  sin,  and  it  is  only  as  we  do  so 
that  we  enjoy  Christian  fellowship  and  are  cleansed 
by  the  blood  of  Jesus.  What,  then,  is  specially  required 
of  us  if  we  would  walk  in  the  light  ? 

It  requires  in  the  first  place  prompt  confession  of 
sin.  The  sin  that  lies  upon  the  conscience  unconfessed 
darkens  the  whole  moral  being.  But  to  confess  is  not 
the  first  impulse  when  we  have  sinned.  Pride,  fear, 
shame,  and  other  powerful  feelings  keep  us  back. 
Our  first  impulse  is  to  hide  our  sin,  or  rather  to  ignore 
it ;  to  try  to  believe  that  the  best  that  can  now  be 
done  is  to  forget  it,  and  to  go  on  as  if  it  had  never 
been ;  to  brace  ourselves  up  to  bear  the  inevitable 
consequences  as  stoically  as  we  can ;  in  any  case,  to 
say  nothing  about  it,  in  the  hope  that  in  time  it  may 
work  itself  out,  and  that  God  will  say  nothing  about 
it  either.  The  thirty-second  Psalm,  which  tells  the 
story  of  a  penitent  and  pardoned  sinner,  begins  it  with 
the  words,  ''When  I  kept  silence".  That  is  the  first 
impulse.  But  to  keep  silence  is  to  walk  in  the  dark 
and  to  walk  alone.  The  unconfessed  sin  separates 
us  from  God,  and  from  all  His  redeeming  and  cleans- 
ing power.  Of  course  He  knows  it,  but  it  is  not 
enough  that  He  should  know,  it  is  necessary  that  we 
should  tell  Him.  If  we  are  going  to  walk  in  the  light, ' 
there  must  be  no  shunning  of  God's  presence,  no  re- 
straint of  prayer,  no  hiding  of  anything  from  Him  even 
for  an  hour. 

Further,  to  walk  in  the  light  means  that  we  con- 
fess our  sins  without  reserve.  Sometimes  we  do  not 
really  confess  when  we  think  we  are  doing  so  :  we 
rather  admit  our  sins  than  confess  them,  and  we  seek 
in  all  possible  ways  to  explain,  to  extenuate  and  to 


220  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

excuse  them.  We  may  confess  them  in  words,  but  in 
the  secret  of  our  hearts  we  do  not  take  blame  ;  we  do 
not  admit  full  responsibility  for  them.  We  think  of 
the  evil  nature  we  have  inherited,  of  the  bias  in  our 
constitution  to  this  or  that  attractive  vice,  of  the  de- 
fects of  our  education,  of  the  violence  of  temptation, 
of  the  compulsion  of  circumstances  ;  we  do  not  deny 
what  we  have  done — we  cannot — but  we  mitigate  it 
by  every  possible  plea.  This  is  not  walking  in  the 
light.  In  all  such  self-excusing  there  is  a  large  element 
of  voluntary  self-deception  which  keeps  the  life  in  the 
dark.  To  walk  in  the  light  requires  us  to  accept  our 
responsibilities  without  reserve,  to  own  our  sin  that  we 
may  be  able  to  disown  it,  and  not  to  own  it  with  such 
qualifications  and  reserves  as  amount  to  saying  in  the 
long  run,  It  was  indeed  I  who  did  it,  but  after  all  it  is 
not  I  who  should  bear  the  blame.  A  man  who  makes 
it  his  business  not  to  confess  his  sin,  but  to  understand 
and  to  explain  it,  no  matter  how  philosophical  he  may 
seem,  is  walking  in  darkness,  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
him.  There  is  nothing  in  his  attitude  which  gives 
him  the  benefit  either  of  fellowship  with  Christians  or 
of  the  cleansing  blood  of  Jesus. 

Finally,  to  walk  in  the  light  means  that  when  we 
confess  our  sins  to  God  we  do  not  keep  a  secret  hold 
of  them  in  our  hearts.  Many  a  man  confesses  the  sin 
he  has  done,  and  knows  that  he  is  going  to  do  it  again. 
It  is  not  only  in  his  nature  to  do  it ;  it  is  in  his  inmost 
desire.  He  has  been  found  out,  exposed,  humiliated, 
punished;  yet  he  is  saying  to  himself,  ''When  shall  I 
awake  ?  I  will  seek  it  yet  again."  It  need  not  be  said 
that  there  is  no  hope  here  :  this  is  the  man  who  is 
shut  up  at  last  in  the  iron  cage  of  despair.     Where 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  221 

there  is  something  hidden  in  the  heart,  hidden  from 
God  and  from  man,  yet  with  the  last  word  to  say  in 
the  Hfe,  the  darkness  is  as  deep  and  dreadful  as  it  can 
be.  The  desire  to  keep  such  a  secret  hold  of  sin  is 
itself  a  sin  to  be  confessed,  to  be  declared  in  its  exceed- 
ing sinfulness,  to  be  unreservedly  renounced  ;  and  it 
is  only  when  the  life  is  brought  into  the  light  by  such 
openness  that  the  Christian  experiences  of  which  the 
Apostle  speaks  are  put  within  its  reach.  The  man  who 
has  a  guilty  secret  in  his  life  is  a  lonely  man.  There 
can  be  no  cordial  Christian  overflow  from  his  heart  to 
the  hearts  of  others,  nor  from  theirs  to  his.  And  he 
is  a  man  doomed  to  bear  in  his  loneliness  the  uneffaced 
stain  of  his  sin.  The  cleansing  virtue  of  the  atone- 
ment cannot  reach  him  where  he  dwells  by  himself  in 
the  dark.  He  is  cut  off  from  the  two  great  blessings 
of  the  Gospel  which  are  conditioned  by  walking  in  the 
light — the  fellowship  of  Christians  with  one  another, 
and  the  sanctifying  power  of  the  blood  of  Jesus.  Let 
us  briefly  consider  these. 

2.  (a)  We  have  fellowship  one  with  another. — The 
fellowship  of  Christians  with  each  other  has  its  basis 
in  their  common  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  but  it  is  a  separate  and  priceless  good.  The  joy 
of  the  Christian  religion  is  largely  bound  up  with  it, 
and  without  joy  there  can  be  little  effectiveness,  be- 
cause little  attraction  or  charm.  How  good  it  is,  and 
how  strengthening,  to  feel  the  heart  enlarged  by  shar- 
ing in  the  Christian  experiences  which  are  common  to 
all  believers !  how  happy  a  state,  not  to  be  alone  in 
that  which  is  deepest  in  our  life,  but  to  know  that 
there  are  those  who  passionately  sympathize  with  us, 
who  feel  with  us  and  with  whom  we  can  feel,  to  the 


222  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

very  depths  of  our  spiritual  nature  !  The  New  Testa- 
ment epistles  are  one  prolonged  illustration  of  what 
this  fellowship  means.  It  means,  to  put  it  briefly, 
that  Christians  are  people  who  have  in  common  the 
interests  and  experiences  which  dominate  these  letters, 
who  are  moved  and  uplifted  by  them  as  the  Apostles 
and  their  correspondents  were,  who  instinctively 
speak  of  them  as  they  spoke,  and  who  find  in  their 
relation  to  each  other  in  Christ  the  most  inspiring  and 
joyful  element  in  their  life.  It  is  something  like  this 
the  Apostle  means  when  he  says,  **We  have  fellow- 
ship one  with  another  ".  But  what  of  our  present 
experience  in  this  connexion  ? 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  want  of  fellowship, 
in  this  primary  Christian  sense,  is  at  this  moment  one  of 
the  greatest  wants  in  the  Church's  life — the  one  which 
is  most  to  be  deplored,  which  more  almost  than  any 
other  makes  the  Church  helpless  and  exposes  it  to 
contempt.  Is  it  not  pitiable  to  see  the  substitutes  that 
are  found  for  it,  and  the  importance  which  is  assigned 
to  them,  only  because  the  real  thing  is  not  there  ? 
We  speak  of  having  "  a  social  meeting  "  of  the  Church, 
as  if  a  meeting  could  not  be  social  unless  its  Christian 
character  were  disguised  or  put  into  the  background. 
We  approve  of  the  Literary  Society  because  it  keeps 
young  people  in  contact  with  the  Church,  as  if  this 
kind  of  contact  had  anything  to  do  with  the  ends  for 
which  the  Church  exists.  We  congratulate  ourselves 
on  the  success  of  a  bazaar,  because  though  it  did  in- 
volve an  immense  amount  of  labour  and  of  waste,  it 
brought  the  members  of  the  congregation  together, 
and  united  them  in  a  common  interest  over  the  organ 
or  the  renovation  of  the  buildings.    We  may  even  find 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  223 

the  choir  picnic  important,  and  if  we  open  a  reading- 
room  where  men  may  play  at  dominoes  we  call  it 
"  extending  the  social  side "  of  the  Church's  work. 
How  incongruous  and  unreal  all  this  would  look  in 
the  first  epistle  of  John !  How  small  and  trivial  it 
does  look  in  face  of  many  other  fellowships  which 
absorb  men  in  the  world  around  us !  The  fellowship 
of  the  members  of  a  political  club  in  promoting  what 
they  think  the  good  of  the  nation — the  fellowship  of 
scholars  in  the  advancement  of  science — the  fellowship 
of  the  members  of  a  Trades  Union  in  promoting  the 
material  interests  of  their  class — all  these  are  more 
powerful,  more  stimulating,  more  attractive  than  the 
small  incidental  fellowships  which  seem  to  be  all  that 
is  real  in  some  churches.  Why  is  it  that  the  power- 
ful and  fundamental  fellow^ship  constituted  simply  by 
membership  in  the  Church  has  fallen  into  the  back- 
ground ?  Why  do  we  not  feel  the  power  and  the 
charm  of  a  common  relation  to  the  Father  and  to 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  of  a  common  participation  in 
that  eternal  life  which  was  with  the  Father  and  has 
been  revealed  for  us  in  the  Son  ?  Why  is  not  this 
the  centre  round  which  we  rally,  where  we  find  our 
greatest  joy,  where  we  can  be  most  truly  one,  and  are 
inspired  for  the  highest  ends  ? 

According  to  the  Apostle,  it  is  because  we  do  not 
walk  in  the  light  as  God  is  in  the  light.  We  sit  here 
side  by  side,  but  how  far  are  we  really  present  to  each 
other  ?  How  many  of  us  are  there  who  have  things 
to  hide  ?  How  many  who  have  done  what  no  one 
knows,  and  what  they  have  not  told  unreservedly  even 
to  God  ?  How  many  are  there  whose  minds  are 
quietly  and  steadily  set  on  something  which  they  dare 


224  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

not  avow,  whose  future  depends  on  keeping  others 
in  the  dark,  and  who  do  not  reahze  that  in  the  sense 
of  the  Apostle  the  very  same  act  keeps  themselves 
in  the  dark  too  ?  How  many  are  there  whose  minds 
have  been  secretly  loosened  from  what  once  seemed 
convictions,  who  have  been  intellectually  estranged 
from  the  Gospel,  who  would  create  a  sensation  if  they 
stood  up  in  the  midst  of  Christian  worship  and  revealed 
their  whole  thoughts  about  God  and  Christ,  about 
Church  and  Bible,  about  prayer  and  sacraments  ? 
These  are  the  things  which  make  fellowship  impossible. 
These  are  the  things  which  make  us  dumb,  because 
they  silence  on  our  lips  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  only  language  which  true  Christianity 
can  speak.  The  want  of  fellowship,  if  the  Apostle  is 
right,  constitutes  an  impeachment  of  our  moral  sincerity. 
If  we  were  walking  in  the  light  it  would  be  otherwise. 
If  we  always  told  the  truth,  if  we  never  made  reserves, 
if  we  dealt  sincerely  with  God,  with  one  another,  and 
with  our  own  souls,  we  should  have  a  fellowship  with 
one  another  such  as  we  have  never  known  ;  we  should 
speak  the  language  of  the  Apostles  as  our  mother- 
tongue,  and  we  should  find,  not  in  other  associations 
but  in  the  Church  itself,  the  most  satisfying  and  in- 
spiring society  in  the  world.  Walk  in  the  light  as 
God  is  in  the  light,  and  your  hearts  will  open  to  each 
other  in  Him.  You  will  discover  on  every  side  un- 
suspected friends.  You  will  get  new  inspirations  for 
your  Christian  life,  new  impulses  and  opportunities  of 
sharing  in  the  Christian  life  of  others.  The  Church 
will  no  longer  be  a  weariness  to  you,  a  place  to  which 
you  come  with  reluctance  and  which  you  leave  with 
relief;  it  will  be  the  home  and  joy  of  your  heart. 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  225 

{b)  The  restoration  of  Christian  fellowship  is  not  the 
only  blessing  which  comes  with  walking  in  the  light : 
there  is  also  continuous  and  progressive  sanctification. 
The  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin. 
This  is  not  spoken  of  simply  as  God's  will,  as  that 
which  He  intends  shall  take  place;  it  is  spoken  of  as 
actually  going  on.  When  they  walk  in  the  light,  the 
atoning  death  of  Jesus  actually  exerts  its  sanctifying 
power  upon  Christians  ;  they  become  continually  purer 
and  more  pure  from  all  sin. 

It  cannot  be  said  too  strongly  that  this  is  God's 
interest  in  the  Church.  As  St.  Paul  puts  it,  this  is  the 
will  of  God,  even  your  sanctification.  What  He  is  con- 
cerned for  is  that  men  who  have  been  defiled  and 
stained  by  sin,  men  who  have  been  dyed  with  it 
through  and  through,  should  be  completely  purified. 
It  is  a  tremendous  task.  Think  only  of  the  congre- 
gation gathered  here,  and  of  what  sin  means  in  us  if 
we  take  it  in  all  its  forms  and  dimensions  and  powers. 
Think  of  the  sinful  passions  which  are  rooted  in  our 
nature — what  St.  John  calls  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and 
the  lust  of  the  eyes  and  the  vainglory  of  life.  Think 
of  the  habits,  some  of  thought  and  imagination,  some 
of  grosser  indulgence,  which  practice  has  burnt  into 
the  blood.  Think  of  the  sins  of  youth  and  of  age  ;  of 
the  pride  and  wilfulness  and  folly ;  of  the  discontent 
and  querulousness  and  rebellion ;  of  the  sloth  and 
shiftlessness,  of  the  envy  and  malice  and  uncharitable- 
ness,  of  the  selfishness  and  ingratitude,  of  the  dis- 
obedience and  obstinacy,  of  the  insincerity,  falsehood, 
and  treachery,  of  the  love  of  the  world  and  the  forget- 
fulness  of  God,  which  are  all  represented  here.  Think 
of  the  deep  stain  these  things  leave,  and  then  consider 

15 


226  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

that  it  is  the  will  of  God  to  cleanse  us  altogether  from 
them,  and  that  He  has  provided  a  power  which  is  able 
to  do  so.  Dreadful  as  is  the  power  of  sin  in  all  its 
forms  and  ramifications,  there  is  a  power  in  the  world 
which  is  still  more  strong  and  wonderful — the  blood 
of  Christ.  The  blood  of  Christ  cleanses  from  all  sin. 
It  does  not  cloak,  it  cleanses.  It  purges  sin  away,  and 
makes  the  flesh  of  the  leper  come  again  as  the  flesh  of 
a  little  child.  This  is  what  the  Gospel  promises,  or 
rather  we  should  say.  This  is  what  the  Gospel  is.  It 
is  a  stupendous  assertion,  but  the  very  wonder  of  it  is 
the  evidence  of  its  truth.  It  is  not  too  good  to  be 
true ;  it  is  too  good  and  too  great  not  to  be  true. 
There  are  books  on  the  atonement  in  abundance  which, 
apart  from  all  other  arguments,  discredit  themselves 
finally  by  reducing  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  Passion 
of  His  Son  to  the  poorest  moral  commonplace.  The 
whole  of  the  New  Testament  is  a  protest  against  this. 
The  atoning  death  of  Jesus  is  the  supreme  miracle  of 
grace,  and  its  eff'ects  in  human  nature  are  no  less 
wonderful  than  the  power  by  which  they  are  wrought. 
It  cleanses  from  all  sin.  It  prevails  against,  over- 
powers and  expels  all  that  has  ever  degraded  and  de- 
filed the  children  of  God. 

Can  we  set  to  our  seal  that  this  is  true?  Is  sin 
surely  disappearing  from  our  life  and  nature  under  the 
power  of  the  atonement  ?  Are  we  who  are  members 
of  the  Church  learning  day  by  day  that  the  most 
powerful  thing  in  the  world  is  not  the  sin  we  know 
so  well,  but  the  blood  of  Christ's  cross,  and  that  under 
this  Divine  and  irresistible  influence  the  dark  stain  of 
sin  is  vanishing  away  ?  This  is  the  concern  which 
God  has  in  our  life.     Others  may  look  on  us  with  inter- 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  227 

est  to  see  what  progress  we  are  making  in  our  business, 
or  in  our  education,  or  in  our  social  career ;  but  what 
God  looks  at  is  our  progress  in  being  purified  from 
sin.  For  this  purpose  was  the  Son  of  God  manifested  ; 
for  this  purpose  He  bore  our  sins  in  His  own  body  to 
the  tree ;  and  to  God  this  purpose  cannot  but  be  as 
dear  as  the  agony  and  passion  of  His  Son.  Is  it  as 
dear  to  us  ?  Is  it  the  one  concern  of  our  life,  as  it  is 
the  supreme  interest  of  God  in  Christ,  that  we  should 
be  cleansed  from  all  sin  ?  If  it  is,  then  we  must  ob- 
serve the  condition  under  which  the  sanctifying  power 
of  the  atonement  becomes  effective  ;  we  must  walk  in 
the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light.  I  have  already  ex- 
plained what  this  involves,  but  must  repeat  part  of 
it  here  in  this  new  connexion.  The  atonement  is  in- 
effective and  indeed  uninteresting  mainly  for  two 
reasons,  which  though  they  are  the  opposite  of  each 
other  lead  alike  to  walking  in  the  dark.  It  is  not 
interesting  if  we  are  not  seriously  interested  in  sin. 
If  sin  is  regarded  with  comparative  indifference — if  it 
is  treated  as  a  slight  or  superficial  matter  which  we 
can  deal  with  for  ourselves — if  the  responsibility  to- 
ward God  in  which  it  involves  us  is  not  realized — if 
it  is  explained  and  explained  away  till  we  do  not  feel 
very  uneasy,  not  to  say  very  guilty  about  it — if  we 
have  never  learned  the  power  of  the  bad  conscience 
to  paralyze  the  will — then  of  course  the  atonement 
will  seem  gratuitous  to  us,  and  we  will  not  get  experi- 
ence of  its  cleansing  power.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
it  is  not  interesting  if  we  are  seriously  interested  in 
sin.  The  man  who  has  been  compromised  with  evil 
and  who  for  reasons  of  his  own  intends  to  continue  so 
— the  man  who  thinks  he  cannot  afford  to  break  finally 


228  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

with  something  against  which  his  conscience  protests, 
and  is  therefore  secretly  resolved  that  he  will  stick  to 
it — this  man  also  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
atonement.  For  the  atonement  means  the  blood  of 
Christ.  It  means  deliverance  by  one  who  'died  for 
sin,  and  whose  power  is  a  power  enabling  us  to  die 
to  it.  It  means  the  inexorable  love  of  God  with  which 
evil  cannot  dwell — a  love  which  must  be  shut  out  of 
his  life,  though  the  saving  power  of  God  is  in  it,  by 
every  one  who,  whatever  his  professions,  refuses  to 
treat  his  sin  as  what  it  is  to  God. 

This  is  why  the  Apostle  puts  in  the  forefront  of  his 
wonderful  declaration  of  the  Gospel  the  searching  con- 
dition— if  we  walk  in  the  light  as  He  is  in  the  light. 
There  is  power  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  sin,  and  there  is  no  power  to  cleanse  us  any- 
where else,  but  it  needs  the  condition  of  openness  and 
sincerity.  We  cannot  be  cleansed  from  the  sin  we 
do  not  confess.  We  cannot  be  cleansed  from  the  sin 
we  excuse.  We  cannot  be  cleansed  from  the  sin  to 
which  we  are  secretly  resolved  to  cHng.  And  if  not 
from  these,  then  not  from  any.  The  Gospel  is  simple 
and  whole ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  negotiation, 
transaction,  or  compromise  possible  in  the  relations  of 
God  and  man.  Everything  is  absolute.  We  may  take 
the  Gospel  or  leave  it,  but  we  cannot  bargain  about  it. 
We  may  be  cleansed  from  all  sin,  or  from  none,  but 
not  from  some  on  condition  of  retaining  others.  Walk 
in  the  light,  and  all  this  will  be  self-evident.  Re- 
nounce with  all  your  heart  everything  secret  and 
insincere.  Let  there  be  nothing  hidden  in  your  life, 
no  unavowed  ends,  no  prevarications,  no  reserves. 
Simple  truth  is  the  one  element  in  which  we  can  be 


WALKING  IN  THE  LIGHT  229 

united  to  each  other,  and  in  which  the  redeeming  love 
of  God  can  work  for  our  sanctification.  Insincerity, 
the  dark  atmosphere  in  which  so  many  souls  live,  is 
in  its  turn  one  of  the  forms  of  sin  from  which  the 
blood  of  Christ  cleanses ;  and  as  we  confess  it,  and 
disown  it,  and  bring  it  to  the  cleansing  blood,  it  also 
loses  its  power.  We  can  learn  even  to  be  sincere 
under  the  power  of  the  death  of  Jesus — to  hide  nothing 
from  God,  to  practise  no  delusions  on  ourselves,  to 
refrain  from  imposing  on  others.  This  is  the  way  in 
which  all  the  wealth  of  the  Gospel  becomes  ours; 
when  we  walk  in  it  we  reahze  that  the  Apostles  wrote 
for  us,  and  that  the  greatest  and  most  wonderful  things 
they  say  of  Christ  and  His  blood  are  the  simple  truth. 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES. 

**Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of  devils." — 
I  Corinthians,  x.  21. 

What  the  Apostle  means  in  this  saying  is  evidently 
that  we  cannot  drink  of  these  two  cups  simultaneously 
or  consistently,  but  of  course  it  is  in  our  power  to  drink 
of  either.  There  is  such  a  thing  in  the  world  as  the 
cup  of  the  Lord,  and  we  can  take  it  in  our  hands  and 
put  it  to  our  lips.  To-day  many  of  us  have  done  so. 
Perhaps  it  was  under  a  deep  sense  of  what  it  signified, 
perhaps  with  a  sort  of  perplexity  in  our  minds  that 
in  a  spiritual  religion  like  ours  such  a  place  should 
have  been  claimed  by  a  material  rite.  It  is  certain  that 
many  church  members  have  no  clear  convictions  about 
the  sacraments,  and  are  uncomfortable  in  the  celebra- 
tion of  them.  They  may  think  in  some  indistinct 
fashion  that  they  are  symbolical,  but  they  use  even  the 
idea  of  symbol  in  a  wrong  way.  A  s3nTibol  in  their 
thoughts  is  something  to  be  distinguished  from  reality ; 
just  because  it  is  a  symbol,  it  keeps  them,  one  might 
say,  at  arm's  length  from  the  thing  symbolized.  But 
the  true  use  of  a  symbol  is  to  bring  the  reality  near ; 
it  is  to  give  us  a  grasp  of  it  such  as  we  could  not  other- 
wise obtain.  A  Christian  spirit  does  not  play  off  the 
reality  in  the  sacrament,  and  the  symbol,  against  each 
other ;  it  grasps  the  reality  through  the  symbol ;  it 
does  not  answer  to  its  experience  to  say  that  in  the 

(230) 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  231 

communion  it  partakes  of  the  symbols  of  Christ's  body 
and  blood ;  it  has  Jesus  Christ  Himself  in  all  the  real- 
ity of  his  incarnation  and  passion  as  its  meat  and  drink. 
It  is  nothing  less  than  the  cup  of  the  Lord  which  we 
drink,  nothing  less  than  the  table  of  the  Lord  of  which 
we  partake. 

The  sacraments,  no  doubt,  may  easily  become  en- 
crusted with  superstition.  They  did  so  even  in  the 
days  of  the  Apostles.  The  Corinthians  to  whom 
Paul  writes  evidently  thought  the  sacraments  had  a 
magical  power,  and  could  keep  them  safe  even  when 
they  ran  into  spiritual  perils  and  tempted  God.  The 
Apostle  had  to  point  them  by  way  of  warning  to 
ancient  Israel,  which  had  also  had  its  sacraments  ;  they 
were  all  baptized  into  Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the 
sea  ;  they  all  had  the  same  spiritual  meat,  the  same 
spiritual  drink ;  yet  they  perished  in  the  wilderness. 
The  sacraments  are  not  charms  or  spells  which  make 
any  conduct  safe.  Nevertheless,  though  superstition 
may  gather  round  them,  they  enshrine  the  ultimate 
truths  of  the  Christian  religion ;  they  safeguard,  in  a 
form  more  impressive  and  less  open  to  distortion  than 
words,  the  realities  by  which  faith  lives.  The  cup  of 
blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  a  communion  in  the 
blood  of  Christ?  Is  it  not  the  cup  of  the  Lord  ?  Is  it 
not  He  who  puts  it  into  our  hand  ?  Is  not  His  love 
in  it,  the  love  with  which  He  loved  us  when  He  gave 
His  life  a  ransom,  the  love  which  bears  sin,  and 
brings  regenerating  pardon  ?  Is  not  that  love  in  the 
cup,  here,  now,  within  reach,  ours,  commended  to  us 
by  the  Lord  Himself?  If  these  things  are  not  so,  I  do 
not  know  what  the  Christian  religion  means,  or  how 
it  can  subsist ;  and   however  men   may    become    be- 


232  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

wildered  in  their  minds  over  the  fundamental  truths  of 
revelation,  Christ  has  in  this  ordinance  a  witness  to 
Himself  which  finds  its  way  to  the  heart.  For  genera- 
tions Protestants  have  been  accustomed  to  denounce 
the  mass  of  the  Romish  Church  as  idolatrous,  super- 
stitious, materialistic,  and  I  know  not  what  else — and 
all  with  perfect  truth ;  yet  the  mass,  as  every  one 
knows,  is  the  heart  of  that  Church's  strength.  Why  is 
that  so  ?  It  is  because  underneath  all  the  incrustations 
of  materialism,  superstition,  and  priestly  assumption, 
the  ultimate  truth  of  the  Gospel  hes  hidden — the  truth 
which  the  cup  of  the  Lord  presents  to  us — that  here 
and  now  the  love  which  bears  and  bears  away  the  sin 
of  the  world  has  come  to  meet  us,  and  graciously  offers 
itself  to  us.  The  Gospel,  it  might  be  said,  is  buried  in 
the  mass ;  but  when  you  have  done  your  worst  in 
this  way  to  the  Gospel,  you  have  done  no  more  than  to 
bury  it  alive ;  you  cannot  kill  it,  and  through  all  en- 
cumbering grave  clothes  it  will  thrill  and  subdue  and 
hold  the  hearts  of  men.  There  could  be  no  stauncher 
Protestant  than  I,  but  if  Protestant  Churches  disparage 
the  sacraments,  and  dissipate  the  Divine  realities  to 
which  they  bear  witness,  then  the  Romish  Church,  in 
spite  of  its  superstition  and  its  tyranny,  will  prevail 
against  them,  and  it  will  have  a  divine  right  to  prevail. 
How  many  among  us  there  are  who  have  none  but 
negative  ideas  of  the  Lord's  Supper!  If  they  were 
asked  what  they  believed  about  it  they  could  hardly 
say  anything  except  that  they  did  not  believe  in  a  real 
presence  anyhow.  And  yet  the  cup  which  we  bless  is 
the  cup  of  the  Lord !  Dear  friends,  we  do  not  need 
to  believe  in  a  real  presence  of  the  Lord  in  the  material 
elements ;  probably  we  cannot ;  but  if  we  are  Chris- 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  233 

tians  at  all  we  must  believe  in  a  real  presence  of  the 
Lord  in  the  celebration  of  the  Supper — a  real  presence 
in  the  sense  of  the  elements  and  the  use  to  which  we 
put  them.  We  must  believe  that  the  table  of  which 
we  partake  is  the  Lord's  table,  that  the  cup  which  we 
drink  is  the  Lord's  cup.  We  must  believe  that  the 
Lord  is  with  us  to  all  the  intents  and  purposes  signified 
by  the  elements  and  the  actions.  He  is  with  us  in  the 
virtue  of  His  broken  body  and  His  shed  blood ;  He  is 
with  us  as  the  Lord  who  bore  our  sins  in  His  own 
body  on  the  tree,  and  made  one  sacrifice  for  them  for 
ever ;  He  is  with  us  that  the  unsearchable  power  of  His 
atoning  love  may  enter  into  us,  condemning,  subduing, 
annihilating,  regenerating ;  He  is  with  us  to  impart 
Himself  to  us,  to  be  the  meat  and  drink  of  our  souls. 
We  have  a  real  presence,  a  presence  which  the  supper 
enables  us  to  realize  in  all  its  wonderful  grace.  We 
have  this  Divine,  this  truly  supernatural  thing,  at  the 
heart  of  our  Christian  life ;  it  does  not  rest  on  the 
wisdom  of  man,  but  on  the  presence  and  power  of  a 
redeeming  God.  And  this  is  what  we  stay  ourselves 
upon  when  we  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  partake 
of  His  table. 

The  Apostle  takes  for  granted  all  that  has  now  been 
said.  He  contemplates  the  Corinthians  sitting  at  the 
Lord's  table,  making  His  redeeming  love  their  own, 
entering  into  this  wonderful  union  with  Him.  It  is 
with  this  in  mind  that  he  says,  *'  Ye  cannot  drink  the 
cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of  devils ;  ye  cannot  be 
partakers  of  the  Lord's  table  and  of  the  table  of  devils." 
What  does  he  mean  by  such  extraordinary  language  ? 

He  is  thinking  of  the  pagan  religions  from  which 
the  Corinthians  had  been  converted,  and  amid  which 


234  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

they  lived.  It  was  not  only  the  Church  which  had 
its  sacraments,  paganism  had  sacraments  too.  The 
Apostle  could  see  in  his  mind's  eye  a  company  of 
worshippers  go  up  to  the  temple  of  Aphrodite  or 
Apollo.  He  could  see  them  sprinkled  with  lustral 
water,  and  standing  by  in  sacred  silence  while  the 
victim  was  slain  in  sacrifice  ;  he  could  see  them  join  in 
the  songs  and  dances  that  filled  up  the  time  between 
the  sacrifice  itself  and  the  preparation  of  the  sacra- 
mental meal,  and  that  reflected  the  religious  mood  of 
the  festival,  whatever  it  might  be  ;  he  could  see  them 
at  last  give  themselves  up  to  the  joy  of  the  meal  which 
crowned  the  festal  day  in  honour  of  the  god.  We 
know  pretty  well  what  this  meal  was.  Aristotle 
derives  the  Greek  verb  which  means  "  to  be  drunk  " 
from  the  words  which  mean  *^ after  the  sacrifice";  it 
was  a  scene  of  revelling  and  excess ;  Paul  calls  it  "  the 
cup  of  devils,"  ''the  table  of  devils,"  and  pronounces 
participation  in  it  inconsistent  with  participation  in 
the  table  and  the  cup  of  the  Lord.  '*  Ye  cannot  drink 
the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  devils." 

The  language  seems  needlessly  harsh  to  some 
modern  readers.  It  is  not  easy  for  those  who  study 
what  is  called  comparative  religion  to  think  of  the  re- 
ligions of  ancient  Greece  as  having  nothing  in  them  or 
behind  them  but  powers  opposed  to  God — to  think  of 
heathenism  as  a  whole  as  sustained  by  forces  demonic, 
not  Divine.  In  the  main,  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
students  of  comparative  religion  are  not  in  contact  with 
these  ancient  worships  as  they  actually  functioned  in  the 
lives  of  men,  but  only  with  what  they  judge  to  have 
been  the  ideal  impulses  in  which  they  originated. 
The  Apostle  speaks  of  heathenism  and  its  sacraments 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  235 

as  he  knew  them  in  relation  to  his  own  work,  and  if 
his  estimate  of  them  is  not  that  of  a  modern  professor 
of  the  science  of  rehgion,  it  is  just  as  the  estimate  of 
Hinduism  which  we  get  from  a  missionary  in  Benares 
is  very  different  from  the  philosophical  representation 
of  Hinduism  we  get  from  a  student  of  its  sacred  books. 
The  two  witnesses  or  interpreters  do  not  contradict 
each  other ;  they  are  really  speaking  of  different 
things.  The  Corinthians  also  thought  Paul's  language 
harsh,  but  for  a  different  reason.  It  was  not  unjust  to 
the  pagan  religion,  but  to  them.  They  knew  quite 
well  what  a  pagan  sacrament  was,  but  they  felt  them- 
selves proof  against  it,  and  able  to  share  in  it  with  their 
old  neighbours  without  getting  any  harm.  Some 
thought  their  own  sacraments  secured  them.  Some 
had  learned  from  Paul  himself  the  lesson  that  an  idol 
is  nothing  in  the  world,  and  armed  in  that  intellectual 
conviction,  or  as  they  might  have  said  in  that  Christian 
principle,  they  thought  they  could  participate  in  the 
pagan  worship  as  grown  men  might  in  some  children's 
game,  without  having  either  their  minds  or  their 
characters  affected  by  it.  It  is  this  fine  abstract  idea 
of  the  power  of  a  principle  to  shield  the  soul  from 
moral  peril  that  Paul  is  afraid  of  He  knows  the 
Corinthians  better  than  they  know  themselves,  and 
he  knows  that  they  are  daring  the  impossible.  No 
matter  how  sure  a  man's  hold  may  be  of  the  Christian 
principle  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world  and  there- 
fore can  do  nothing  to  harm  any  enlightened  person  ;  if 
he  takes  part  in  such  a  transaction  as  I  have  described, 
then  its  atmosphere,  its  circumstances,  its  spirit,  will 
prevail  against  him  ;  he  will  be  brought  in  spite  of 
himself  into  the  great  communion  of  heathen  life  again. 


236  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Let  him  say  what  he  will,  it  is  another  world  than 
that  in  which  we  live  at  the  Lord's  table  ;  it  is  spiritual 
influence  of  another  quality  which  tells  there  upon  the 
soul :  and  the  two  are  irreconcilable.  **  Ye  cannot 
drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  demons  ". 

Our  interest,  however,  is  not  in  the  Corinthians 
and  in  the  Apostle's  right  to  speak  as  he  did  to  them  ; 
it  is  in  the  application  of  his  words  to  ourselves  and 
to  the  conditions  of  our  own  life.  Is  it  necessary  to 
say  to  us,  "  Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and 
the  cup  of  devils  "  ?  Are  we  in  any  danger  of  entering 
into  communions  which  are  incompatible  with  our 
communion  in  the  blood  of  Christ  ? 

Surely  to  ask  this  question  is  to  answer  it.  We  do 
not  see,  indeed,  in  our  streets  the  temples  or  the 
altars  of  false  gods  ;  at  least  we  do  not  see  the  names 
of  the  false  gods  written  upon  them.  But  that  is 
part  of  our  peril.  It  is  easy  enough  to  say  that  an 
idol  is  nothing  in  the  world — that  we  do  not  believe 
in  demons  and  their  influence — but  that  does  not  take 
us  very  far.  It  is  easy  enough,  as  one  of  our  most 
brilliant  Greek  scholars  has  put  it,  to  say  that  there  are 
no  such  persons  as  Bacchus  and  Aphrodite  ;  the  real 
question  is.  Are  there  no  such  things  ?  Are  there  no 
powers  in  the  world  in  which  we  live  which  are  radi- 
cally and  finally  hostile  to  Christ  ?  Is  it  not  as  true 
now  as  when  the  New  Testament  was  written  that 
our  wrestle  is  not  with  flesh  and  blood — not  simply 
with  other  human  creatures  like  ourselves,  whom  we 
could  fight,  so  to  speak,  with  our  hands — but  against 
influences  which  are  far  more  subtle,  pervasive,  and 
powerful  than  that  of  another  human  will — against  a 
poisonous  moral  atmosphere  which  chokes  the  very 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  237 

life  of  Christ  in  the  soul  ?  Such  an  atmosphere  was 
created  for  the  Corinthians  by  the  old  heathen  worship 
and  its  associations,  for  in  Corinth  as  in  Canaan  they 
did  their  abominations  unto  their  gods ;  for  us,  it  may 
be  created  in  other  ways,  yet  be  none  the  less  fatal  to 
our  communion  with  Christ.  Can  we  specify  any  of 
these  ways  so  as  to  warn  ourselves  against  them  ? 

Probably  the  cup  of  devils  is  drunk  most  fre- 
quently still  under  the  sign  of  liberty.  Even  a  Chris- 
tian man  says  to  himself  that  everything  in  human  life 
ought  to  be  of  interest  to  him.  It  belongs  to  his  in- 
telligence to  concern  itself  with  all  the  experiences  of 
his  kind,  and  the  most  attractive  way  to  look  at  these 
experiences  is  in  literature.  This  is  the  mirror  in 
which  life  is  reflected,  and  it  cannot  be  wrong  to  gaze 
into  it.  It  is  indeed  the  mark  of  a  large  and  liberal 
intelligence  to  have  the  amplest  toleration  here ;  to 
allow  the  mind  to  familiarize  itself  with  all  that  has 
been  said  and  thought  by  human  beings;  to  cultivate 
breadth,  appreciation,  geniality ;  to  avoid  a  censorious 
and  puritanic  temper.  The  world  that  is  good  enough 
for  God  should  be  good  enough  for  us,  and  we  should 
not  be  too  good  to  take  it  as  it  is. 

It  is  by  pleas  like  these,  or  in  a  mood  like  this,  that 
men  and  women  who  have  drunk  the  cup  of  the  Lord 
allow  themselves  to  drink  the  cup  of  devils.  They 
deliberately  breathe  a  poisoned  spiritual  air  as  if  it 
could  do  them  no  harm.  But  it  does  do  harm.  1 
do  not  believe  there  is  anything  in  which  people  are 
so  ready  to  take  liberties  which  does  so  much  harm. 
There  are  bad  books  in  the  world,  just  as  there  are 
bad  men,  and  a  Christian  cannot  afford  to  take  either 
the  one  or  the  other  into  his  bosom.     There  are  books, 


238  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

and  books  of  genius  too,  which  should  not  be  read,  be- 
cause they  should  never  have  been  written.  The  first 
imagination  and  conception  of  them  was  sin,  and  the 
sin  is  revived  when  they  are  conceived  again  in  the 
mind  even  of  a  Christian  reader.  It  is  revived  with 
all  the  deadly  power  that  belongs  to  sin.  We  cannot 
give  our  minds  over  to  it  with  impunity.  It  confuses, 
it  stains,  it  debilitates,  it  kills.  It  is  the  cup  of  devils, 
and  we  cannot  drink  it  and  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord. 
There  is  a  strange  persistence  in  the  idea  that  all 
things  are  lawful  in  this  region,  and  that  it  is  in  some 
way  a  sign  of  moral  weakness  to  put  a  limit  to  one's 
liberty.  And  this  makes  it  the  more  dangerous. 
Christ,  it  was  said  by  some  one  writing  on  Pascal,  has 
two  great  enemies,  the  god  Priapus  and  the  god  Pan. 
You  can  get  to  the  end  of  it  with  the  first,  the  author  of 
this  observation  thought,  but  never  with  the  second. 
You  can  vanquish  sensuality  in  its  gross  forms,  but  can 
never  quite  get  over  the  idea  that  the  world  is  one,  and 
that  it  can  do  you  no  harm  to  regard  everything  that  is 
in  it,  especially  when  it  is  presented  to  you  in  the  form 
of  literature,  with  indulgent  toleration.  I  say  again, 
it  is  not  true.  Such  indulgent  toleration  is  the  cup  of 
devils,  and  it  can  never  be  compatible  with  the  cup  of 
the  Lord.  The  Lord  died  for  the  difference  between 
right  and  wrong,  to  which  this  mental  temper  would 
render  us  indifferent ;  and  we  drink  of  His  cup  that 
we  may  be  conformed  to  His  death.  No  charm  of  art 
or  genius  should  prevail  with  us  to  breathe  an  air 
which  is  fatal  to  the  soul's  health  ;  rather  must  we  say 
of  such  charms,  as  the  law  of  God  said  to  Israel  of  the 
idols  of  the  Canaanites,  "Thou  shalt  not  desire  the 
silver  nor  the  gold  that  is  on  them  ".  Nothing  has  value 
for  a  Christian,  he  can  count  nothing  but  loss,  if  it 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  239 

impairs  the  reality,  the  certainty,  and  the  worth   of 
his  experiences  at  the  table  of  the  Lord. 

I  dare  say  some  might  be  found  to  argue  that  the 
violence  of  Paul's  language  here  is  due  to  idiosyn- 
crasies of  the  man,  and  that  we  find  a  more  serene  and 
impartial  look  at  life  in  the  words  of  Jesus.  The  Lord, 
it  may  be  said,  is  more  genial,  and  has  a  more  sympa- 
thetic appreciation  of  life  as  it  is.  I  can  only  say  that 
this  seems  to  me  the  very  reverse  of  the  truth.  The 
most  severe  and  inexorable  things  that  are  said  in  the 
New  Testament  about  the  impossibility  of  combining 
the  life  of  discipleship  with  any  such  indulgent  tolera- 
tion of  all  that  men  call  natural  are  the  things  said  by 
Jesus.  He  is  the  great  teacher  of  separation,  of  re- 
nunciation, of  the  cross.  The  one  thing  which  alarms 
Him,  and  calls  forth  from  His  love  the  most  passionate 
warnings,  is  the  disposition  in  men  to  believe  that 
nature  always  has  its  rights  and  that  we  can  never  go 
far  wrong  if  we  simply  recognize  them.  "  If  thy  hand 
or  thy  foot  offend  thee,  cut  them  off  and  cast  them 
from  thee ;  it  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  into  life  halt 
or  maimed  rather  than  having  two  hands  or  two  feet 
to  be  cast  into  the  everlasting  fire.  And  if  thine  eye 
offend  thee,  pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee ;  it  is 
better  for  thee  to  enter  into  life  with  one  eye  rather 
than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  hell  fire."  All 
things  are  not  lawful  for  us  if  we  wish  to  remain  in 
the  Lord's  company  and  to  share  in  His  life.  If  a  man 
holds  the  principle  that  nature  is  entitled  to  assert  it- 
self through  all  the  impulses  implanted  in  it,  and  holds 
it  so  absolutely  that  he  will  go  wherever  his  feet  can 
carry  him — that  he  will  handle  whatever  his  fingers  itch 
to  touch — that  he  will  glut  his  eyes  with  gazing  on  what- 
ever they  crave  to  see — the  result  will  not  be  that  that 


240  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

man  will  have  an  ampler  and  a  richer  character  ;  it  will 
be  that  he  has  no  character  at  all.  It  will  not  be  an 
abundant  entrance  into  life,  it  will  be  the  sinking  of  an 
exhausted  nature  into  hell.  For  creatures  such  as  we 
are,  in  a  world  like  this,  these,  according  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  are  the  alternatives ;  and  they  «r^  alternatives. 
This  is  the  philosophy  of  Puritanism,  when  all  the 
liberal  criticism  of  it  is  over  :  "Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup 
of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  devils ;  ye  cannot  partake 
of  the  table  of  the  Lord  and  the  table  of  devils  ".  And 
as  surely  as  we  would  have  Christ  and  the  atonement, 
the  judgment  and  the  mercy  of  God,  the  Spirit  of  holi- 
ness and  the  hope  of  heaven  remain  real  to  us,  so 
surely  must  we  renounce  the  things  which  cast  on  all 
these  the  shadow  of  unreality  or  insignificance,  and 
neutralize  in  our  life  their  redeeming  power.  Dear 
friends,  there  are  such  things.  We  all  know  them. 
We  have  all  loved  them.  We  have  all  feared  them.  It 
is  our  Lord  Himself  who  says  to  us,  "Cut  them  o^for 
your  life  ". 

We  read  in  the  seventeenth  Psalm  of  men  whose 
portion  in  Hfe  is  of  the  world,  but  it  is  the  happiness 
of  those  who  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  that  their  por- 
tion in  hfe  is  of  God.  All  that  is  most  real  to  them 
and  most  dear  is  that  which  is  brought  home  to  their 
hearts  at  the  Lord's  table.  They  think  with  awe  and 
with  exultation  of  what  God  is,  and  of  what  He  has 
done  for  us  and  is  giving  to  us  in  His  Son.  They  say 
to  themselves.  This  is  the  world,  this  is  the  environ- 
ment of  realities,  in  which  I  must  live  and  move  and 
have  my  being  now.  Other  things  pass,  but  this  re- 
mains. Other  things  are  dubious  and  baffling,  but 
this  is  sure  and  clear.     The  presence  which  is  ever 


MORAL  IMPOSSIBILITIES  241 

with  us,  in  the  secret  of  which  we  have  been  hidden, 
under  the  overshadowing  of  which  we  go  forth,  is  the 
presence  of  an  eternal  love  which  has  borne  our  sins 
and  is  calling  us  to  holiness  in  fellowship  with  itself. 
How  can  we  ever  forget  it  ?  How  can  it  cease  to  be 
the  motive  which  inspires  and  controls  all  our  life? 
How  can  we  ever  be  ashamed  of  it  ?  How  can  we 
venture  to  argue  against  it,  and  to  excuse  ourselves 
for  bringing  other  things  into  competition  with  it? 
Do  we  provoke  the  Lord  to  jealousy  ?  Do  we  think 
we  can  face  the  responsibility  of  our  life  if  He  is  not 
with  us  ?  What  tempts  many  to  unfaithful  accommo- 
dation is  the  dread  of  standing  alone.  They  do  not 
like  to  be  singular,  especially  when  singularity  brings 
the  reproach  of  being  censorious  and  intolerant,  or 
timid  and  small  minded.  But  no  one  is  alone  who 
bears  any  reproach  for  being  true  to  Christ.  It  is 
under  these  conditions  that  the  Lord  comes  most  near 
and  makes  His  presence  most  real  to  the  soul.  The 
jealousy  that  we  might  have  stirred  up  against  us 
stirs  up  itself  on  our  behalf.  **  I,"  saith  the  Lord, 
"  will  be  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  them."  **  He  that 
toucheth  you  toucheth  the  apple  of  his  eye."  This 
is  our  hope  when  we  take  in  all  seriousness  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  our  calling.  When  we  put  aside  the 
tempting  cups  which  on  all  sides  are  held  out  to  us,  it 
is  not  to  impoverish  our  life.  It  is  to  say,  "  The  Lord 
is  the  portion  of  mine  inheritance  and  my  cup  :  Thou 
maintainest  my  lot.  The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me 
in  pleasant  places,  yea  I  have  a  goodly  heritage.  .  .  . 
Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life ;  in  Thy  presence 
is  fulness  of  joy  ;  at  Thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures 

for  evermore." 

16 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER. 

"  Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Every  sin  and  blasphemy  shall  be  for- 
given unto  men  :  but  the  blasphemy  against  the  Spirit  shall  not  be 
forgiven.  And  whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the  Son  of  man, 
it  shall  be  forgiven  him  :  but  whosoever  shall  speak  against  the  Holy 
Spirit,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world,  nor  in  that 
which  is  to  come."— Matthew  xii.  31,  32. 

In  the  Gospel  narratives  at  this  point  we  find  two 
comments  made  upon  Jesus  which  are  almost  equally 
startHng,  and  which  suggest  that  ordinary  conceptions 
of  our  Lord  are  in  some  respects  far  from  the  truth. 
The  tradition  of  Christian  art  has  taught  us  to  think 
of  Jesus  as  living  a  life  of  untroubled  calm ;  His 
countenance  in  pictures  may  be  pensive  or  majestic  or 
compassionate,  but  it  is  always  in  repose.  Anything 
strained  or  overwrought  would  seem  out  of  place. 
But  here  we  see  that  alike  upon  friends  and  enemies 
He  made  a  different  impression.  He  was  rapt,  as  He 
taught  the  multitudes,  in  a  lofty  excitement.  When 
He  encountered  those  who  were  regarded  as  possessed 
by  evil  spirits,  the  Spirit  that  was  in  Him  reacted  with 
intense  vehemence  against  their  delusions  and  degra- 
dation;  the  Gospels  are  full  of  the  peremptory  and 
commanding  words  that  He  spoke  as  He  set  them  free. 
If  we  think  of  a  scene  hke  the  cleansing  of  the  temple, 
when  zeal  for  His  Father's  house  consumed  Him  Hke 
a  flame ;  or  of  His  baptism,  when  He  saw  the  heavens 

(242) 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER         243 

open  and  heard  the  Father's  voice ;  or  of  the  hour 
when  He  turned  on  Peter  with  the  terrible  rebuke,  "  Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan  "  ;  we  can  feel  how  untrue  is  that 
conception  of  Jesus  which  represents  Him  as  immov- 
ably placid.  Perhaps  it  would  be  truer  to  think  of 
Him  as  habitually  rapt,  exalted,  intense.  Certainly 
this  is  how  we  must  think  of  Him  on  the  occasion  on 
which  he  is  presented  to  us  in  the  text.  It  was  a  con- 
dition which  baffled  the  bystanders.  His  friends  said, 
**  He  is  beside  himself";  the  scribes  from  Jerusalem 
said,  "  He  has  an  unclean  spirit  ". 

This  is  how  it  is  put  in  Mark,  but  there  is  a  striking 
difference  to  be  noted  between  the  evangelists.  Mark 
does  not  say  an3^thing  about  the  Son  of  Man ;  he 
contrasts  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Spirit  with 
sins  and  blasphemies  in  general.  Matthew  on  the 
other  hand  contrasts  it  with  speaking  against  the  Son 
of  Man.  "Whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the 
Son  of  Man  it  shall  be  forgiven  him  ;  but  whosoever 
shall  speak  against  the  Hol}^  Spirit,  it  shall  not  be  for- 
given him,  neither  in  this  world  nor  in  that  which  is  to 
come."  There  are  some  difficulties  about  this  version 
of  our  Lord's  words  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  to 
enter  here;  but  assuming  it  to  be, reliable,  we  may  be 
disposed  to  think  that  though  Mark  does  not  present 
us  in  set  terms  with  the  contrast  which  we  find  in 
Matthew — the  contrast  between  speaking  against  the 
Son  of  Man  and  speaking  against  the  Spirit — he  does 
present  us  with  the  key  to  it.  Two  kinds  of  sin  are 
in  view  in  Matthew,  and  both  are  sins  of  speech  ;  but 
though  he  mentions  both,  Matthew  does  not  illustrate 
both.  If  we  had  to  explain  from  his  Gospel  alone,  first 
what  is  meant  by  speaking  a  word  against  the  Son  of 


244  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Man,  and  next  what  is  meant  by  speaking  against  the 
Holy  Spirit,  we  should  be  much  at  a  loss.  But  Mark, 
though  he  does  not  present  us  with  this  contrast,  pre- 
sents us  with  illustrations  which  enable  us  to  under- 
stand and  apply  it.  The  petulant  exclamation  of  the 
friends  of  Jesus,  as  they  see  how  He  is  rapt  and  lost  in 
His  work — He  is  beside  Himself— there  we  have  the 
word  spoken  against  the  Son  of  Man ;  the  malignant 
utterance  of  the  scribes  from  Jerusalem,  as  they  saw 
Him  relieve  the  possessed — He  has  Beelzebub,  He  is  in 
league  with  the  devil — there  we  have  the  word  spoken 
against  the  Holy  Spirit. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  long  on  the  first.  A 
life  and  work  like  that  of  Jesus  must  often  have 
seemed  baffling  to  those  who  were  about  Him  and 
who  had  a  natural  affection  for  Him.  We  can  under- 
stand how  His  mother  and  His  brothers  had  a  true 
though  misplaced  concern  for  His  welfare.  If  there 
were  a  son  or  a  brother  in  our  house  to  whom  the  one 
thing  real  was  the  kingdom  of  God,  who  broke  every 
earthly  tie  to  give  himself  completely  to  it,  who  spent 
whole  nights  on  the  hillside  in  prayer  to  God  over  it, 
who  was  so  absorbed  in  it  that  he  could  not  find  time 
for  his  necessary  food  and  apparently  did  not  care, 
should  we  not  be  tempted  to  think  that  he  needed  look- 
ing after  ?  No  doubt  the  friends  of  Jesus  should  have 
known  Him  better  than  they  did.  They  ought  to 
have  had  greater  sympathy  with  Him,  greater  appre- 
ciation for  His  work.  They  ought  not  to  have  made 
it  possible  for  Him  to  say,  with  the  bitter  accent  of  ex- 
perience, "A  man's  foes  are  they  of  his  own  house- 
hold ".  But  though  they  sinned  in  these  respects,  it 
was  not  a  hopeless  or  unpardonable  sin.     Their  hearts 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER         245 

were  not  really  shut  against  Jesus  ;  they  were  not  deli- 
berately and  malignantly  opposed  to  His  work.  I  do  not 
say  this  as  though  the  sin  of  their  speech  could  be  ex- 
plained away.  If  they  were  alarmed  on  Jesus'  account, 
they  were  irritated  and  annoyed  on  their  own  ;  they 
were  provoked  that  One  who  ought  to  have  been  able 
to  take  care  of  Himself  should  persist  in  causing  need- 
less anxiety  ;  and  their  petulant  exclamation,  pardonable 
though  it  was,  was  gravely  wrong  when  we  remember 
who  was  its  object.  Nevertheless,  it  was  only  petulant, 
not  malignant.  It  was  something  they  could  and 
would  be  sorry  for  afterwards ;  they  would  repent  and 
it  would  be  forgiven. 

Is  this  speaking  against  the  Son  of  Man  a  sin  which 
can  be  committed  now  ?  Sitting  in  the  church,  we  are 
perhaps  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  not.  We  cannot 
stand  in  the  same  relation  to  Jesus  as  those  who  were 
His  contemporaries  on  earth,  and  it  is  not  possible  for 
us  to  express  impatience  or  irreverence  in  the  same 
unthinking  way.  But  it  is  difficult  for  anyone  who 
hears  or  reads  much  of  the  unceasing  discussion  of 
Jesus  which  goes  on  all  around  us  to  avoid  the  im- 
pression that  speaking  against  the  Son  of  Man  is  a 
common  sin.  Probably  there  never  was  a  time  when 
the  Gospels  were  so  much  read  as  at  present.  Jesus 
is  surrounded  by  multitudes  as  dense  and  as  deeply 
interested  as  ever  thronged  about  Him  in  Galilee. 
They  look  on  and  listen,  and  feel  free  to  express  their 
opinions  about  Him,  and  often  they  do  it  with  no 
sense  of  what  He  is  and  of  what  they  themselves  are. 
They  make  their  comments  unembarrassed  by  rever- 
ence. It  is  not  in  their  minds  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord, 
and  that  in  the  last  resort  it  is  not  we  who  judge  Him, 


246  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

but  He  who  judges  us.  What  is  called  the  purely 
historical  study  of  the  Gospels — as  if  there  were  any 
such  thing — is  apt  to  betray  into  this  wrong  attitude 
some  who  should  know  better,  and  who  really  do 
know  better ;  and  then  they  may  be  heard  to  speak 
of  Jesus  in  a  tone  which  is  painful  to  Christian  feeling 
and  injurious  to  the  Lord  Himself.  You  may  catch 
it  often  in  what  are  ostentatiously  non-Christian  or 
non-theological  renderings  of  the  Gospel ;  but  you 
may  catch  it  also  in  sermons  and  in  students'  essays 
and  in  common  talk.  The  friends  of  Jesus  who  said 
"  He  is  beside  Himself"  had  lost  for  the  moment  or  had 
not  yet  attained  any  real  sense  of  what  He  was ;  they 
spoke  of  Him  as  if  He  were  just  one  of  themselves, 
who  in  an  excess  of  zeal  was  like  to  go  off  His  head. 
Their  attitude  is  reproduced  by  a  great  many  people 
who,  without  thinking  what  they  are  doing,  really 
take  the  measure  of  Jesus  in  their  own  minds,  point 
out  His  Hmitations,  assign  Him  His  place,  show  where 
and  how  far  He  paid  tribute  to  His  time,— betray,  in 
short,  in  their  whole  relation  to  Him,  the  twentieth 
century's  sense  of  its  own  superiority  to  the  first 
I  am  not  going  to  deny  that  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  in  many  ways  superior  to  the  first ;  nor  even 
that  it  was  part  of  the  reahty  of  our  Lord's  man- 
hood that  He  should  be  man  of  the  particular  age  in 
which  He  was  born,  and  not  of  another ;  but  if  we 
cease  to  feel  through  all  such  distinctions  that  Jesus 
is  the  Lord,  we  shall  run  great  risk  of  falling  into  the 
sin  in  question.  Do  not  let  us  consider  it  a  sin  of  no 
consequence  because  it  is  pardonable.  It  is  pardon- 
able on  the  same  condition  as  other  sins — namely,  that 
it  is  repented  of,  confessed,  renounced.      To  cultivate 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER         247 

reverence  of  speech  where  there  is  no  deeper  rever- 
ence might  be  a  doubtful  gain ;  we  know  the  kind  of 
insincerity  which  is  generated  in  this  way.  Nothing 
is  more  unpleasant  than  the  piety  which  thinks  it  ir- 
reverent to  speak  of  Jesus  as  the  Gospels  do — the 
piety  of  religious  etiquette,  for  example,  which  always 
says  ''our  blessed  Lord"  as  if  it  were  a  sin  to  say 
''Jesus";  but  in  spite  of  the  risks  in  this  direction, 
the  risks  in  the  other  seem  to  me  at  present  greater. 
What  we  need  to  cultivate  is  a  reverent  sense  of  the 
greatness  of  Jesus ;  or  rather,  without  any  conscious 
cultivation  of  it,  we  need  so  to  look  at  and  listen  to 
Him,  so  to  love,  trust,  and  obey  Him,  that  the  sense 
of  what  He  is  will  grow  upon  us,  resting  continually 
on  our  hearts,  and  restraining  us  from  all  that  is  ir- 
reverent in  thought  or  word. 

But  let  us  turn  now  to  the  other  sin  referred  to  in 
the  text,  that  of  speaking  against  or  blaspheming  the 
Holy  Spirit.  As  speaking  against  the  Son  of  Man 
was  illustrated  by  the  impatient  outburst,  "  He  is  beside 
Himself"  ;  so  blasphemy  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  illustrated 
by  the  fearful  words,  "He  has  Beelzebub;  he  is  pos- 
sessed by  the  prince  of  demons  ".  Matthew  tells  us  that 
at  this  very  time  there  was  brought  to  Jesus  one  pos- 
sessed of  a  demon,  blind  and  dumb ;  and  that  He  healed 
him,  so  that  the  blind  and  dumb  both  saw  and  spoke. 
Jesus  Himself  was  deeply  impressed.  He  was  con- 
scious that  the  power  which  He  exercised  in  restoring 
such  dreadfully  afflicted  creatures  was  power  which 
the  Father  had  given  Him.  He  reverenced  God  in  it. 
To  Him  it  was  the  supreme  and  decisive  proof  that 
God  was  visiting  the  world  for  its  salvation.  "  If  I 
by  the  finger  of  God  am  casting  out   demons,  then 


248  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  kingdom  of  God  has  come  to  you."  It  does  not 
matter  whether  a  first  century  form  of  thought — that 
of  possession  by  demons  ;  or  a  twentieth  century  form 
of  thought,  which  would  speak  of  some  kind  of  insanity, 
is  used  to  describe  the  facts  and  to  present  them  to  the 
mind  ;  the  facts  themselves  are  indubitable.  There  was 
a  power  which  wrought  through  Jesus,  bringing  health 
to  the  disordered  mind,  composure  to  the  shattered 
nerves,  purity  to  the  hideous  imaginings,  God  and  His 
peace  and  joy  to  lost  and  terror-stricken  souls.  If  we 
may  say  so  with  reverence,  the  contemplation  of  its 
working  filled  Jesus  Himself  with  devout  joy  ;  He  saw 
in  it  the  pledge  of  the  Father's  redeeming  presence. 
It  filled  the  multitudes  with  unimaginable  hope : 
"Can  this,"  they  exclaimed,  '*be  the  Son  of  David? 
Has  the  great  DeHverer  appeared  at  last  ?  "  But  the 
scribes  who  came  down  from  Jerusalem  said,  "He  has 
Beelzebub.  He  is  in  league  with  the  devil.  The 
power  He  wields  is  Satanic  in  its  source,  and  His  only 
aim  is  to  deceive  the  people." 

To  understand  this,  we  must  remember  that  this  was 
not  the  first  thought  of  the  scribes  about  Jesus,  nor 
their  first  word,  but  their  last.  They  had  had  their  eye 
upon  Him  from  the  beginning,  and  they  did  not  like 
Him.  They  disliked  Him  more  the  more  they  saw  of 
Him.  The  earlier  part  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
Mark  exhibits  a  series  of  occasions  on  which  they  had 
already  come  into  collision  with  Him.  They  were  per- 
petually finding  fault  with  Him  and  His  circle,  and 
were  ready  on  their  own  side,  as  theologians  perhaps 
are  apt  to  be,  with  the  charge  of  blasphemy  which  is 
here  so  solemnly  retorted.  ''Why  do  Thy  disciples 
fast  not  ?     Why  do  they  on  the  Sabbath  day  that  which 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER         249 

is  not  lawful  ?  Why  doth  this  man  speak  thus  ?  He 
blasphemeth.  Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ?  " 
The  attitude  of  Jesus  to  God  and  to  man  threatened 
everything  the  scribes  counted  dear.  It  threatened 
their  conception  of  religion,  and  it  threatened  their 
religious  reputation.  If  Jesus  was  right  about  these 
things,  they  were  wrong — wrong  to  the  very  founda- 
tion. No  doubt  this  was  a  trying  position  for  them. 
It  is  hard  to  admit  that  we  are  wrong  about  the  things 
which  are  most  vital,  and  it  is  peculiarly  hard  when 
those  who  have  this  painful  admission  to  make  are  the 
professional  teachers  of  religion,  and  when  they  have 
been  convinced  of  their  error  by  one  who  has  had  no 
professional  education,  and  has  only  been  taught  of  God. 
But  though  it  is  hard  to  unlearn  and  to  learn  better, 
it  ought  not  to  be  impossible.  There  were  scribes 
whom  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament  had  prepared  to 
appreciate  Jesus.  There  was  one  who  offered  to  fol- 
low Him  wherever  He  went.  There  was  one  who 
answered  Him  with  such  spiritual  intelligence  as  com- 
mended His  admiration  and  perhaps  His  hope  ;  "  thou 
art  not  far,"  he  said,  **from  the  kingdom  of  God  ".  But 
with  the  majority  it  was  not  so.  Their  early  aversion 
to  Jesus  deepened  into  antipathy,  and  their  antipathy 
settled  into  maHgnant  hatred.  There  was  nothing  they 
would  not  do  in  their  implacable  antagonism.  With 
His  wonderful  deeds  of  mercy  under  their  eyes — with 
a  power  at  work  in  Him,  before  their  very  faces,  which 
its  effects  proved  indisputably  to  be  the  gracious  and 
redeeming  power  of  God — they  hardened  their  hearts 
and  said,  **  Beelzebub  ".  It  was  not  the  exclamation  of 
men  who  were  irritated  at  the  moment  and  forgot 
themselves,  so  to  speak  ;  that  could  have  been  repented 


250  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  and  forgiven  ;  it  was  the  deliberate  and  settled  malice 
of  men  who  would  say  anything  and  do  anything 
rather  than  yield  to  the  appeal  of  the  good  Spirit  of 
God  in  Jesus.  This  is  the  blasphemy  against  the 
Spirit,  the  sin  which  in  its  very  nature  is  unpardonable. 
Jesus  calls  it  eternal  sin.  It  is  sin  which,  look  at  it  as 
long  as  you  may,  is  never  turned  by  repentance  into 
anything  else  ;  and  therefore  it  has  no  forgiveness, 
neither  in  this  world  nor  in  that  which  is  to  come. 

The  terrible  solemnity  of  these  words  has  oppressed 
many  hearts.  People  of  sensitive  conscience  have  been 
tormented  with  the  dread  that  they  had  committed  the 
unpardonable  sin — that  without  knowing  it,  or  in  some 
hasty  but  irretrievable  word  or  act,  they  had  placed 
themselves  for  ever  beyond  the  reach  of  mercy.  It 
would  be  wrong  to  say  anything  which  encouraged 
sinful  men  to  think  lightly  of  their  sins,  but  it  is  surely 
clear  from  what  has  been  said  already  that  this  fatal 
sin  cannot  be  committed  inadvertently.  It  is  the  last 
degree  of  antipathy  to  Christ  to  which  the  soul  can  ad- 
vance, the  sin  of  those  who  will  do  anything  rather 
than  recognize  in  Him  the  presence  of  God. 

You  may  think,  perhaps,  that  in  this  case  it  is  a  sin 
which  has  very  little  interest  for  us — less  even  than 
that  of  speaking  a  word  against  the  Son  of  Man.  But 
consider  the  sin  in  its  nature,  as  distinct  from  the  par- 
ticular form  in  which  it  was  committed  by  the  scribes. 
They  were  confronted  by  the  appeal  of  God's  goodness 
in  Jesus,  and  rather  than  yield  to  it  they  contrived  a 
hideous  explanation  of  it  which  should  render  it  im- 
potent both  for  themselves  and  others.  Is  this  a  sin 
which  is  so  very  uncommon  ?  Or  is  it  not  common 
enough  to  hear  men  who  are  annoyed  and  reproved  by 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER         251 

the  good  deeds  of  others  ascribe  these  good  deeds  to 
base  and  unworthy  motives,  so  as  to  reheve  the  pres- 
sure with  which  they  would  otherwise  bear  on  their 
own  consciences  ?  This  is  the  essence  of  the  blasphemy 
against  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  the  sin  of  those  who  find 
out  bad  motives  for  other  people's  good  actions,  so  that 
goodness  may  be  discredited,  and  its  appeal  perish, 
and  they  themselves  and  others  live  on  undisturbed  by 
its  power.  Take  one  of  the  most  ordinary  instances. 
When  a  selfish  or  mean  man  is  confronted  by  the 
generosity  of  another,  there  is  a  spontaneous  reaction 
in  his  moral  nature.  It  is  a  reaction  of  admiration. 
Conscience  tells  us  instinctively  that  such  generosity  is 
good ;  it  is  inspired  by  God ;  it  is  worthy  of  admira- 
tion and  imitation.  But  something  else  in  us  may 
speak  besides  conscience.  Perhaps  we  do  not  like  the 
man  who  has  done  the  generous  thing ;  we  grudge  him 
the  honour  and  the  good  will  it  brings ;  we  would  not 
be  sorry  to  see  him  discredited  a  little.  Perhaps  we 
are  naturally  grasping  and  mean,  and  our  selfish  nature 
resents  the  reproof  of  another's  generosity.  We  should 
be  pleased  to  think  he  is  no  better  than  he  need  be. 
We  hint  at  ostentation  and  the  love  of  praise ;  we  think 
of  ambition,  and  of  the  desire  to  have  a  party,  which  is 
to  be  concihated  by  such  gifts ;  and  the  generosity  of 
the  man  is  perverted  or  ignored.  It  ceases  to  be  a 
thing  which  speaks  with  power  for  God  to  us.  This, 
I  repeat,  is  essentially  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit. 
It  is  the  sin  of  finding  bad  motives  for  good  actions, 
because  the  good  actions  condemn  us,  and  we  do  not 
want  to  yield  to  their  appeal.  It  is  the  sin  of  refusing 
to  acknowledge  God  when  he  is  manifestly  there,  and 
of  introducing  something  Satanic  to  explain  and  dis- 


252  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

credit  what  has  unquestionably  God  behind  it.  When 
this  temper  is  indulged,  and  has  its  perfect  work,  the 
soul  has  sunk  and  hardened  into  a  state  in  which  God 
appeals  to  it  in  vain.  The  presence  of  Jesus  Himself 
does  not  subdue  it ;  it  only  evokes  its  virulent,  rooted, 
implacable  dislike.  This  is  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  it  is  presented  to  us  in  the  Gospels. 

One  of  the  things  which  disguises  it  from  us,  and 
sometimes  even  makes  it  attractive  to  youthful  minds,  is 
that  it  often  assumes  the  appearance  of  cleverness.  I 
have  spoken  of  it  as  the  finding  of  bad  motives  for  good 
actions.  All  human  actions,  we  are  accustomed  to 
hear,  proceed  from  mixed  motives ;  and  to  disentangle 
these  motives,  to  show  how  largely  and  how  subtly 
evil  mingles  with  the  good,  how  far  what  is  superfici- 
ally noble  and  disinterested  has  selfishness  in  some 
form  behind  it,  is  a  great  part  of  what  some  people 
call  the  knowledge  of  human  nature.  A  famous 
French  moralist  printed  as  the  motto  of  his  book  the 
following  sentence  :  Our  virtues  for  the  most  part  are 
but  vices  in  disguise.  A  penetrating  mind,  working 
with  this  clue,  can  easily  make  a  brilliant,  fascinating, 
disquieting  exhibition  of  human  nature ;  but  it  is 
dangerous  and  miserable  to  go  out  into  the  world  of 
real  life  in  any  such  spirit.  Pity  of  the  man  who 
thinks  that  most  of  the  virtue  in  the  world  is  vice  in 
disguise,  whose  cleverness  is  only  to  unmask  the  pre- 
tender to  goodness,  whose  boast  is  that  he  is  never 
taken  in !  In  the  process  of  canonization  there  is  a 
figure  called  the  Advocatus  Diabolic  the  devil's  counsel, 
who  states  the  case  against  the  saint  on  the  principle 
we  have  been  considering.  He  finds  out  all  the  bad 
motives  which  may  have  prompted  all  the  saint's  good 


THE  DEADLINESS  OF  SLANDER  253 

actions,  and  urges  them  against  his  recognition  by  the 
Church.  It  is  a  poor  occupation,  and  to  exercise  it  in 
real  Hfe  is  to  be  really  on  the  devil's  side.  Though 
our  Lord  says  to  His  disciples,  "  Beware  of  men,  be  ye 
wise  as  serpents,"  He  never  teaches  suspicion.  It  is  a 
sign  of  spiritual  health  when  we  are  quick  to  recog- 
nize and  to  welcome  goodness,  and  our  joy  in  the 
appreciation  of  it  is  one  of  the  surest  indications  that 
we  ourselves  have  a  place  in  God's  kingdom. 

It  is  in  this  region  that  we  must  look  to  make  the 
practical  application  of  the  solemn  words  of  Jesus. 
Perhaps  you  may  think  I  have  brought  them  down  to 
a  level  at  which  their  solemnity  is  lost.  But  it  is  not 
so.  As  I  have  already  pointed  out,  the  stage  at  which 
the  scribes  now  stood  was  not  the  first  stage  of  their 
relations  to  Jesus.  They  had  reached  it  by  degrees. 
They  did  not  commit  the  unpardonable  sin  in  a 
moment  of  impatience  or  inadvertence  the  first  time 
they  met  Him ;  they  sank  into  the  commission  of  it 
as  on  one  occasion  after  another  they  indulged  their 
aversion,  resented  His  influence,  counteracted  His 
work,  perverted  His  motives.  It  is  in  the  same  way  only 
that  anyone  can  ever  come  to  blaspheme  the  Spirit, 
but  the  solemn  possibility  remains  that  in  this  way 
this  dreadful  guilt  may  still  be  incurred.  Surely  we 
may  say  emphatically  of  this  as  of  all  sins  :  Withstand 
the  beginnings.  Do  not  be  suspicious  of  goodness  in 
others.  Do  not  be  slow  to  believe  in  it,  or  ready  to 
put  an  evil  construction  upon  it.  Speak  no  slander, 
no,  nor  listen  to  it.  It  is  the  chief  of  all  our  happiness 
and  security  in  the  world  that  we  do  not  become  bhnd 
to  goodness,  that  we  keep  alive  to  the  presence  of  God 
wherever   that  presence   is  manifested  in  the  life   of 


254  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

men,  that  we  open  our  nature  freely  and  joyfully  to 
the  impression  of  it,  that  we  let  ourselves  be  caught 
in  the  stream  and  carried  on  by  it  in  the  life  which  is 
life  indeed.  If  you  have  a  suspicious  temper,  fight 
against  it;  if  you  think  it  clever  to  detect  the  reality 
of  selfishness  or  vice  behind  the  virtues  of  others,  sus- 
pect yourself;  if  you  have  any  joy  in  the  exposure  of 
unworthy  motives,  be  afraid.  But  above  everything, 
if  you  wish  to  be  remote  from  this  unpardonable  sin, 
rejoice  in  the  work  of  Jesus.  Acquaint  yourself  with 
what  is  being  done  in  His  name,  and  in  His  spirit  and 
power — with  the  casting  out  of  evil  spirits,  with  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  with  the  mighty 
works  of  love  which  men  and  women  inspired  by  Him 
are  doing  in  all  the  world ;  acquaint  yourself  with  these 
things,  rejoice  in  them,  promote  them,  give  thanks  to 
God  for  them ;  and  the  thought  of  the  sin  against  the 
Holy  Spirit  will  never  make  you  afraid. 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO. 

"  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  counted  unto  him  for  righteous- 
ness."—Romans  IV.  3. 
"  He  believed  in  the  Lord  j  and  he  counted  it  to  Him  for  righteousness." 
—Genesis  xv.  6. 

The  interest  of  Abraham's  life  in  the  Bible  begins 
when  God  speaks  to  him,  and  when  Abraham  believes 
what  God  said.  How  God  spoke  to  Abraham,  or  how 
He  speaks  to  anyone,  we  may  never  be  able  fully  to 
explain  ;  but  if  there  is  a  God  at  all,  it  is  not  assuming 
much  to  assume  that  He  is  able  to  communicate  with 
His  creatures,  to  assure  them  of  His  presence,  of  His 
interest  in  them,  of  His  will  on  their  behalf.  We  know 
that  in  point  of  fact  He  can  do  this.  He  can  impress 
us  with  such  a  sense  of  obligation  as  can  only  be 
understood  as  the  will  of  God  ;  He  can  inspire  us 
with  such  sublime  and  solemn  hopes  as  can  only  be 
understood  as  promises  of  God.  Now  what  the  text 
tells  us  is  that  when  God  has  done  this — when  He  has 
spoken  and  we  have  heard  His  w^ord — there  is  only 
one  right  thing  for  us  to  do :  to  believe  Him.  It  is 
not  right  to  dispute  God's  command,  or  to  criticize 
His  promise,  or  to  try  to  enter  into  any  kind  of  negotia- 
tions with  Him  about  either.  His  word  is  absolute 
and  unconditional  because  it  is  Divine.  It  is  not  right 
to  put  anything  else  into  the  scale  against  it,  as  if, 
perhaps,  it  might  be   outweighed.      The   only  right 

(255) 


256  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

thing  to  do,  the  only  right  attitude  for  the  soul  to  take, 
is  to  recognize  that  in  the  word  which  God  has 
spoken,  whatever  it  may  be,  we  are  in  contact  with 
the  final  reahty  in  the  universe,  and  to  invest  our 
whole  life  and  being  in  that.  When  we  do  so,  God 
counts  it  to  us  for  righteousness,  and  it  is  righteous- 
ness. There  is  nothing  in  God's  counting  artificial  or 
unreal.  It  may  be  a  righteousness  of  grace — if  the 
word  of  God  is  a  word  of  grace  it  will  be  so — but  it  is 
real  righteousness  nevertheless.  The  man  is  not  only 
reckoned  righteous,  he  is  truly  right  with  God,  for 
whom  the  word  that  God  has  spoken  is  the  last  reality 
in  life. 

The  word  that  God  spoke  to  Abraham  was  char- 
acteristically a  word  of  promise.  It  is  put  in  various 
forms  at  different  periods  of  his  life.  *'  I  will  make  of 
thee  a  great  nation."  **  Unto  thy  seed  will  I  give  this 
land."  "  Look  now  toward  heaven,  and  tell  the  stars 
if  thou  be  able  to  tell  them :  so  shall  thy  seed  be." 
If  we  put  this  in  general  terms  we  may  say  that 
Abraham  had  a  Divine  future  held  out  to  him  in  the 
word  of  God.  When  we  are  told  that  he  believed 
God,  it  means  that  that  Divine  future  had  a  reality  for 
him  in  comparison  with  which  everything  else  lost  both 
reahty  and  value.  He  could  count  all  things  loss  for  its 
sake.  He  left  his  country  and  his  kindred  for  it ;  he 
renounced  for  it  the  tempting  openings  which  he  saw 
around  him,  and  every  future  which  he  might  have 
carved  out  for  himself.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  life 
of  Abraham  was  rich  in  natural  possibilities.  He  might 
have  had  a  future  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  had  he  chosen 
to  remain  there,  and  to  disbelieve  the  voice  which  said, 
*'  Get  thee  out  to  a  land  that  I  will  show  thee,  and  I 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO  257 

will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation  ".  No  doubt  a  man  of 
his  power  and  enterprise  would  have  had  a  career  if 
he  had  chosen  to  settle  in  Sodom  or  in  Egypt,  and  to 
renounce  the  visionary  prospect  of  inheriting  Canaan. 
He  could  have  founded  a  family  and  even  a  powerful 
line  of  princes,  if  he  had  been  content  with  Ishmael, 
as  he  was  much  inclined  to  be — O  that  Ishmael  might 
live  before  thee  ! — and  had  given  up  looking  for  the 
child  of  promise.  But  if  in  face  of  the  word  of  God 
he  had  declined  upon  any  of  these  alternatives,  God 
could  not  have  counted  it  to  him  for  righteousness. 
On  the  contrary,  he  would  have  been  all  wrong  with 
God.  The  other  things,  of  course,  had  a  reality  of 
their  own  which  he  did  not  dispute.  A  home  in 
Haran,  or  in  Egypt,  or  in  the  plain  of  Jordan — a  life 
like  that  of  the  Babylonians,  or  of  the  Canaanites  and 
Perizzites  whom  he  saw  around  him  in  Palestine — 
mihtary  ambitions  like  those  of  Chedorlaomer  and  the 
allied  kings :  all  these  probably  meant  as  much  to 
Abraham  as  to  anyone.  But  he  had  had  something 
revealed  to  him  with  which  in  reality  and  value  none 
of  them  could  compete  :  the  future  held  out  in  the 
promise  of  God.  To  believe  in  this,  though  it  meant 
to  count  unreal  all  that  was  most  real  to  other  men, 
was  the  only  right  thing  to  do ;  and  as  Abraham  Hved 
out  his  long  life  still  believing,  still  counting  God's 
promise  the  final  reality,  it  made  and  kept  him  right 
with  God.  He  stood  before  God  justifiediby  his  faith,  a 
man  with  whom  God  was  well  pleased,  the  friend  of 
God. 

Every  one  must  have  noticed  how  much  there  is 
in  the  New  Testament  about  Abraham  and  his  faith. 
The    reason   is    that   for   those  who  wrote  the  New 

17 


258  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Testament  Abraham  is  the  type  of  true  piety.  He  is 
the  ideal  of  rehgion,  we  might  almost  say  the  pattern 
Christian,  and  apostolic  Christianity  finds  its  own 
attitude  to  God  anticipated  or  reflected  in  him.  All 
the  New  Testament  writers  who  wish  to  prove  any- 
thing about  true  religion  say,  "  Look  at  Abraham  ". 
Paul  does  it  in  this  passage,  and  then  again  in  the 
epistle  to  the  Galatians.  James  does  it  in  the  well- 
known  discussion  of  faith  and  works  in  which  he  is 
often  supposed  to  be  controverting  Paul.  The  writer 
to  the  Hebrews  does  it  in  subHme  and  memorable 
words  which  will  recur  to  every  one.  The  reason  of  this 
is  that  in  true  religion  there  is  one  thing  which  never 
changes — the  attitude  of  the  soul  to  God ;  and  that 
right  attitude  of  the  soul  to  God,  on  which  religion 
depends  for  its  very  existence,  is  perfectly  illustrated 
in  Abraham.  God  may  make  Himself  known  more 
fully  in  one  generation  than  in  another;  His  word 
may  be  more  articulate,  more  expHcit  in  its  command, 
more  spiritual  and  far-reaching  in  its  promise;  but 
the  one  thing  which  it  requires  under  all  circumstances 
is  that  which  it  found  in  Abraham — to  be  treated  as  the 
last  and  absolute  reality  in  life.  So  to  treat  it  is  to 
take  our  place  among  the  children  of  Abraham ;  it  is 
to  believe  God  in  the  sense  of  this  text,  the  sense 
which  makes  and  keeps  us  right  with  Him. 

The  one  condition  on  which  this  text  has  any 
interest  for  us  is  that  God  should  have  spoken  to  us 
also,  and  by  doing  so  made  an  appeal  for  faith.  It  is 
the  assumption  of  true  religion  in  all  its  stages  that  He 
has  spoken.  In  the  old  Scots  Confession  of  Faith  drawn 
up  at  the  Reformation,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  is  headed,  "  Of  the  revelation  of  the  promise  ". 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO  259 

The  original  form  of  the  promise,  according  to  the 
Confession,  is  preserved  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  : 
the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head. 
It  is  the  primary  form  of  faith  to  believe  that  good 
will  eventually  triumph  over  evil,  nay  that  man  himself, 
by  the  help  of  God,  will  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil. 
But  the  promise,  the  Confession  proceeds  to  tell  us, 
was  repeated  and  made  more  clear  from  time  to  time, 
till  at  last  it  has  been  made  perfectly  clear  to  us  in 
"  the  joyfull  daie  of  Christ  Jesus  ".  This  is  the  point 
on  which  our  interest  has  to  be  concentrated.  We 
may  not  know  how  God  spoke  to  Abraham,  nor  how 
Abraham  was  so  sure  that  it  was  God  who  spoke,  but 
we  know  that  Christ  is  God's  word  to  us.  What  does 
it  mean  ?  What  revelation  of  God  comes  in  it  calling 
for  our  faith  ?  It  means  that  the  last  reality  in  the 
world,  the  final  truth  of  God,  is  redeeming  love,  a  love 
that  bears  sin  in  the  agony  and  passion  of  the  garden 
and  the  cross,  and  holds  fast  to  men  through  it 
all.  What  does  it  promise?  What  is  the  Divine 
future  which  is  held  out  to  us  in  it  ?  It  promises  that 
we  shall  be  sons  of  God,  transfigured  with  the  holiness 
and  glory  of  the  only-begotten  from  the  Father.  The 
Apostles  were  not  afraid  to  beHeve  this,  or  if  they  were, 
the  gracious  revelation  triumphed  over  their  fears  and 
enabled  them  not  only  to  believe  it  for  a  moment,  but  to 
live  by  their  faith.  What  stupendous  things  they  say 
in  faith,  and  with  what  simplicity  !  **  We  shall  be  like 
Him,"  says  St.  John.  **We  shall  wear  the  image  of 
the  heavenly,"  says  St.  Paul.  This  is  the  true  confes- 
sion of  Christian  faith,  the  height  to  which  the  heart  can 
rise  in  men  who  have  heard  the  voice  of  God  in  Jesus, 
and  taken  in  all  that  it  means.    And  do  we  not  know  in 


26o  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

our  hearts  that  these  are  the  men  who  are  right  with 
God  ?  If  we  ask  what  His  word  requires,  must  we  not 
sa3^  that  it  requires  to  be  believed  ?  The  one  right 
thing  to  do  in  presence  of  the  revelation  and  appeal 
of  God  in  Christ  is  to  stake  our  life  upon  it  for  good 
and  all.  This  was  what  Abraham  did  when  he  be- 
lieved God,  and  this  is  always  what  faith  means  in 
the  Bible.  Without  it,  it  is  impossible  to  please  God  ; 
but  where  He  finds  it,  He  asks  for  nothing  more.  He 
counts  His  faith  to  the  believer  for  righteousness ;  and 
in  very  truth  the  man  who  so  believes  is  right  with 
God.  God  and  that  man  are  pledged  to  each  other 
without  reserve,  and  if  it  is  a  sinful  man  it  is  a  redeem- 
ing God,  and  the  future  is  sure.  "We  shall  be  like 
Him." 

But  all  men,  as  St.  Paul  says  in  a  solemn  sentence 
elsewhere,  have  not  faith.  They  have  not  all  staked 
their  hfe  on  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ.  Redeeming 
love  is  not  for  all  the  last  reahty  in  the  universe,  for 
which  everything  else  is  counted  loss.  Many  live  in 
worlds  of  their  own  which  are  by  comparison  unreal. 
Some  are  happy,  others  miserable  ;  but  none  are  right 
with  God. 

There  are  men  who  live,  it  may  be  said,  on  the  level 
of  nature  rather  than  of  the  Divine  revelation,  and  who 
are  tolerably  content  with  it.  God  promised  a  Divine 
future  to  Abraham,  and  many  a  man  in  Abraham's 
place  would  never  have  given  it  a  second  thought. 
It  was  shadowy  enough  anyhow,  and  Abraham  had 
already  in  his  possession  things  which  were  compara- 
tively valuable  and  real.  He  had  a  fair  worldly  posi- 
tion, and  it  was  capable  of  improvement.  He  was  rich 
in  slaves  and  cattle,  in  silver  and  gold.    He  had  the  re- 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO         261 

spect  of  the  society  amid  which  he  moved,  and  no  doubt 
knew  its  worth.  Why  should  he  give  up  all  or  any  of 
this  for  the  doubtful  future  offered  to  him  by  God  ? 
Something  hke  this  is  in  the  minds  of  many  people  who 
do  not  take  the  Gospel  seriously.  Their  life  as  it  is, 
without  the  word  and  promise  of  God  in  Christ,  is  real 
enough,  and  yields  considerable  satisfaction.  Their 
business  is  real,  and  the  interest  they  have  in  it  en- 
gages their  thoughts  sufficiently.  Their  family  life  is 
real,  and  the  affections  are  their  own  reward.  Their 
intellectual  interests  are  real ;  they  find  a  true  enlarge- 
ment and  refinement  of  their  natures  in  literature, 
science,  and  art.  Even  their  poHtics  may  be  real,  not 
to  say  absorbing.  But  if  it  be  true  that  into  this  world 
of  human  life  with  all  its  interests  and  rewards  God 
has  come,  revealing  and  promising  something  which 
transcends  them  all,  does  not  that  make  a  difference  ? 
If  God  has  really  spoken  to  us  in  Christ,  if  He  has 
shown  us  in  Christ  what  He  not  only  wishes  us  to  be, 
but  what  it  is  in  His  purpose  and  power  to  make  us, 
is  it  possible  for  any  man,  however  honourable  and 
satisfying  his  life  may  be,  to  be  right  with  God,  and  yet 
not  to  take  His  word  to  us  in  Christ  seriously  ?  Is  it 
possible  at  the  same  time  to  be  right  with  God  and  to 
ignore  Him  ?  I  say  it  is  not  possible.  God  is  present, 
no  doubt,  in  all  the  world,  in  that  whole  order  of  things 
in  which  human  life  with  all  its  interests  goes  on.  We 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  Him ;  and  He  is 
present,  so  far,  in  many  a  life  which  is  unconscious  of 
what  it  owes  Him.  But  He  offers  us  in  Christ  far 
more  than  this  presence  of  which  we  may  be  uncon- 
scious ;  He  offers  us  a  redeeming  and  transfiguring 
presence  to  be  consciously  made  ours  through  faith. 


262  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

He  offers  to  lift  our  being,  in  spite  of  what  we  have 
made  it,  to  the  plane  and  power  which  we  have  seen 
in  Christ.  Can  we  ever  be  anything  but  wrong  with 
God  as  long  as  we  ignore  this,  and  prefer  to  the  Divine 
future  held  out  in  Christ— a  future  which  abides  for 
ever — the  fast  vanishing  present,  however  satisfying, 
for  the  moment,  it  may  be  ?  Can  we  ever  be  anything 
but  wrong  with  God  as  long  as  we  ignore  the  fact 
that  everything  else  we  have  is  infinitely  outweighed 
in  worth  by  Christ,  while  Christ  is  nevertheless  re- 
garded by  us  with  indifference?  And  can  life  be 
worth  having  unless  at  bottom  we  are  right  with 
God? 

Sometimes  this  life  on  the  level  of  nature  hardens 
through  content  into  complacency  and  self-sufficiency, 
and  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is  encountered 
by  its  worst  enemy,  the  most  absolute  antagonist  of 
faith,  Pharisaism.  What  Pharisaism  means  at  bottom 
is  that  man  is  independent  of  God,  and  can  even  make 
God  his  debtor.  The  Pharisee  comes  before  God 
clothed  in  a  righteousness  of  his  own,  a  character  and 
life  for  which  he  is  prepared  to  take  the  responsibility 
himself,  and  virtually  challenges  God's  approbation. 
But  how  can  a  man  assume  such  an  attitude  to  God  ? 
If  the  final  revelation  of  God  is  made,  as  the  New 
Testament  shows,  at  the  cross  of  Jesus,  is  not  such  an 
attitude  once  for  all  impossible  ?  Can  a  man  stand 
in  the  presence  of  that  Passion,  can  he  realize  what 
God's  eternal  love  has  done  and  is  doing  and  will  ever 
do  for  the  redemption  of  our  fallen  race,  and  think 
himself  right  with  God  though  he  ignores  it  all  and 
takes  the  whole  responsibility  of  his  life  alone  ?  You 
may  think  that  there  is  no  Pharisaism  like  this  in  the 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO  263 

world,  but  do  not  be  too  sure.  I  believe  there  are 
many  people,  even  in  the  Church,  to  whom  the  idea  of 
becoming  indebted  to  Christ  is  profoundly  disagree- 
able ;  and  because  it  is,  they  evade  the  final  revelation 
of  God  in  His  crucified  and  risen  Son,  and  without 
shaping  their  thoughts  very  definitely  hold  by  the 
Pharisaic  conviction  that  somehow  or  other  they  will 
be  able  to  answer  for  themselves.  They  do  not  take 
the  word  of'  God  in  Christ  seriously.  They  do  not 
beheve  it,  as  Abraham  did  when  God  spoke  to  him. 
The  final  reality  is  not  for  them  what  it  is  for  God,  and 
hence  they  can  never  be  right  with  Him.  When  they 
read  their  Bibles  everything  is  out  of  focus,  and  natur- 
ally they  cease  to  read  what  they  cannot  understand. 
But  it  was  a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees  who  saw  more 
clearly  than  any  of  the  Apostles  that  in  faith  boasting 
is  excluded;  and  even  the  Pharisee  will  become  right 
with  God  if  he  stands  by  the  cross  of  Jesus  till  the 
power  of  that  Divine  passion  descends  into  his  heart 
and  reveals  itself  to  him  as  the  first  and  last  reality  in 
the  world. 

But  there  is  another  world  still  in  which  we  may 
live,  not  despising  faith  like  the  Pharisee,  nor  ignoring 
it  like  the  unreflecting  man  who  takes  life  as  he  finds 
it,  but  dismayed  by  it  as  too  hard,  or  incredulous  of  it, 
as  too  good.  When  the  meaning  of  the  word  of  God 
in  Christ  begins  to  break  upon  our  souls,  we  may  well 
be  overwhelmed  by  its  greatness  ;  it  holds  out  a  Divine 
future,  no  doubt,  but  who  can  beheve  it  is  a  future 
meant  for  us  ?  Christ  is  in  the  world,  the  living  word 
and  promise  of  God ;  and  as  we  look  at  Him,  we  hear 
God's  voice  assure  us  that  we  shall  be  like  Him.  This 
is   the   Gospel.     Only  God  could  inspire  a  hope  so 


264  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

wonderful ;  but  when  we  think  of  it,  is  it  not  too 
wonderful  ?  is  it  not  quite  incredible  ?  IVe  like  Him  ? 
We  conformed  to  the  image  of  God's  Son  ?  We  know 
in  part  what  we  are.  We  are  sorrowfully  acquainted 
with  passions  that  degrade  us  in  our  own  eyes  ;  our 
imaginations  have  been  haunted  with  unholy  things ; 
shall  we  be  like  Him?  We  have  fits  of  vicious  or 
sullen  temper  when  we  stab  with  wicked  words  even 
those  whom  we  love  ;  is  it  really  meant  that  these 
shall  cease,  and  that  we  shall  be  clothed  in  the  meek- 
ness and  gentleness  of  Jesus  ?  We  are  selfish,  grasp- 
ing, unwilling  to  part  with  money  or  to  take  trouble 
for  others  ;  is  it  really  meant  that  for  us  it  will  be  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive  ?  We  are  inconstant 
and  half  hearted  in  all  our  efforts  to  be  good  ;  we  run 
well,  perhaps,  for  a  little,  but  cannot  run  with  patience 
a  long  or  trying  race ;  is  it  the  very  truth  of  God 
that  this  weakness  will  be  overcome,  and  that  we  shall 
endure  to  the  end,  and  by  endurance  win  our  souls  ? 
Yes,  that  is  the  Divine  truth;  that  is  the  word  and 
promise  of  God  in  Christ,  in  whom  the  eternal  re- 
deeming love  of  the  Father  has  been  revealed  as  the 
ultimate  reality  in  the  universe.  But  how  easy  it  is 
and  how  common  for  apathy  and  despair  to  assert 
themselves  against  it.  Men  say  to  themselves,  **  It  is 
no  use  talking :  I  can  never  be  anything  but  what  I 
am.  God  cannot  make  me  pure.  He  cannot  make  me 
free.  He  cannot  make  me  glad.  He  cannot  put  a  new 
song  in  my  mouth.  He  cannot  make  the  eighth  chapter 
of  Romans  the  natural  expression  of  my  experience. 
It  only  needs  to  be  imagined  to  be  pronounced  im- 
possible." It  is  indeed  no  use  talking;  but  the  word 
of  God  in  Christ,  on  which  everything  here  turns,  is 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO         265 

not  talking;  it  is  the  revelation  of  the  ultimate  reality 
and  power  in  the  world.  The  God  who  is  revealed 
there  is  spoken  of  in  this  very  chapter  of  Romans  as 
one  who  calls  things  that  are  not  as  though  they  were  : 
not  meaning  that  He  speaks  of  them  as  existing  though 
they  do  not  exist,  but  that  while  as  yet  they  have  no 
existence  He  speaks  of  them  in  that  creative  voice 
which  called  the  worlds  into  being  and  has  not  lost 
its  power.  We  do  not  believe  in  God  at  all  unless  we 
believe  in  One  whose  word  can  work  this  wonder; 
and  when  we  reflect  that  the  redeeming  love  revealed 
in  Christ  has  omnipotence  at  its  command,  dare  we 
doubt  what  we  are  called  to  do  ?  What  do  we  believe 
is  the  final  reality?  What  is  going  to  survive  and 
reign  when  everything  else  has  passed  away  ?  Is  it 
the  flesh,  the  bad  conscience,  the  impotent  will,  the 
worm  that  dies  not  and  the  fire  that  is  not  quenched? 
Are  we  to  stake  our  life  on  these,  or  on  the  redeeming 
love  of  God  which  has  come  to  us  in  His  Son,  and  on 
the  new  creature  to  be  created  by  it  in  God's  likeness  ? 
Do  we  believe  in  what  we  are  as  the  ultimate  reality, 
or  is  not  the  eternal  love  of  God  which  appeals  to  us 
in  Christ  more  real,  and  able  to  change  us  into  His 
image  ?  It  is  only  this  last  belief  which  does  justice 
to  God,  and  makes  us  right  with  Him.  It  is  this  only 
which  He  can  count  to  us  as  righteousness.  It  is  this 
which  is  the  faith  by  which  men  are  justified  and  saved. 
This  text  is  one  of  many  which  suggest  to  us  two 
characteristics  of  the  true  religion  much  insisted  on  in 
Scripture — its  simplicity,  and  the  absoluteness  of  its 
requirement.  When  God  speaks.  He  demands  to  be 
taken  at  His  word ;  no  more  than  this,  but  also  no 
less.     His  word  is  not  proposed  as  a  basis  of  negotia- 


266  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

tion  or  discussion  ;  it  can  neither  be  abridged  nor  sup- 
plemented. To  apply  this  to  the  Christian  stage  of 
revelation  :  redeeming  love,  displayed  in  the  crucified 
Christ,  is  the  sum  of  God's  word  to  the  world  ;  and  all 
that  that  word  demands  from  those  who  would  be  right 
with  God  is  the  final  and  unconditional  abandonment 
of  the  soul  to  the  redeeming  love  itself.  I  do  not 
believe  that  anyone  ever  got  a  real  sight  of  Christ 
and  of  God's  redeeming  love  in  Him  without  becoming 
conscious  that  there  is  something  in  it  which  with  all 
its  graciousness  is  peremptory  and  inexorable.  There 
is  that  in  the  Gospel  with  which  no  one  is  allowed  to 
argue.  All  we  can  do  is  to  believe,  in  the  sense  of  the 
text,  or  to  disbelieve ;  to  give  it  in  our  life  the  place  of 
the  final  reality  to  which  everything  else  must  give 
way,  or  to  refuse  it  that  place.  Many  people  are  not 
clear  about  this.  They  would  like  to  talk  the  word 
of  God  over.  It  raises  in  their  minds  various  questions 
they  would  willingly  discuss.  It  has  aspects  of  interest 
and  of  difficulty  which  call  for  consideration  :  and  so 
on.  Perhaps  there  are  some  who  confusedly  shield 
themselves  against  the  responsibilities  of  faith  and  un- 
belief by  such  thoughts.  All  that  such  thoughts  prove, 
however,  is  that  those  who  cherish  them  have  never 
yet  realized  that  what  we  are  dealing  with  in  the  Gos- 
pel is  God.  When  God  speaks  in  Christ  He  reveals 
His  gracious  will  without  qualification,  and  without 
qualification  we  have  to  believe  in  it,  or  to  refuse  our 
belief,  and  so  to  decide  once  for  all  the  controversy  be- 
tween ourselves  and  Him.  God  has  not  come  into  the 
world  in  Christ — Christ  has  not  hung  upon  the  cross 
bearing  the  sin  of  the  world — to  be  talked  about,  but 
to  become  the  supreme  reality  in  the  life  of  men,  or  to 


THE  ONE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO  267 

be  excluded  from  that  place.  To  believe  is  to  fall  in 
unconditionally  with  the  purpose  of  God.  It  is  to  fix 
our  eyes  on  Christ  and  say,  There  is  the  supreme  and 
final  reality  in  the  universe  for  me  ;  there  is  that  which 
for  me  is  more  real  than  all  the  world  has  to  offer  ;  yes, 
more  real  than  the  terrible  reality  of  sin  which  till  now 
has  dwarfed  and  annulled  every  other  reality  in  my 
life ;  there  is  that  to  which  I  must  and  will  and  do  cling 
in  spite  of  all  appearances,  in  spite  of  my  unworthiness, 
in  spite  of  everything  in  my  nature  which  questions  or 
resents  it.  This  is  faith  ;  it  is  believing  God,  and  when 
we  so  believe  Him,  He  counts  it  to  us  for  righteousness. 
He  cannot  ask  from  us  anything  more  or  less  or  other 
than  faith.  It  is  the  one  thing  which  does  justice  alike 
to  Him  and  to  us.  It  is  not  a  part  of  Christianity,  but 
the  whole  of  it.  It  has  the  hope  and  power  of  all  moral 
attainment  in  it,  and  it  only  needs  to  have  its  perfect 
work  to  make  God's  unspeakable  promise  good. 


( 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION. 

"  Are  ye  so  foolish  ?  having  begun  in  the  spirit,  are  ye  now  perfected 
in  the  flesh?  "—Galatians  III.  3. 

What  is  before  the  Apostle's  mind  as  he  writes  these 
words  is  the  conversion  of  the  Galatians  and  their  re- 
ligious relapse.  Once  they  had  been  pagans,  wor- 
shipping gods  that  were  no  gods  with  a  merely  ritual 
service — in  bondage  to  "weak  and  beggarly  elements," 
which  whatever  else  it  means,  means  enslaved  by  some 
sort  of  religious  materialism.  Suddenly  Paul  appeared 
among  them  with  his  Gospel.  He  held  up  Christ  on 
His  cross  :  **  placarded  "  Him,  as  he  says  in  this  chapter, 
before  their  eyes.  He  held  Him  up  in  the  character 
described  in  his  very  first  sentence,  as  one  **who  gave 
Himself  for  us,  that  He  might  redeem  us  from  this  pres- 
ent evil  world."  The  sight  of  Christ  crucified  arrested 
them  as  it  has  arrested  innumerable  hearts  since.  They 
were  fascinated  by  it ;  for  the  time  they  were  spell- 
bound. Christ  entered  into  their  souls  in  the  power 
of  His  passion  ;  He  lived  in  them,  and  they  died  to  their 
old  selves  and  lived  in  Him.  Old  things  passed  away, 
and  all  things  became  new.  This  is  the  beginning, 
and  if  we  only  understood,  it  is  also  the  middle  and 
the  end  of  Christianity.  Nothing  has  any  right  to  a 
place  in  it  but  Christ,  the  Christ  who  died  for  us,  and 
the  reactions  of  the  soul  under  His  influence.  Christ 
crucified  and  the  soul's  response  to  Him  are  the  whole 

(268) 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  269 

of  the  true  Christian  rehgion.  This  is  the  experience 
which  is  meant  in  the  New  Testament  by  receiving 
the  Spirit.  The  creeds  teach  us  to  beheve  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  but  that  is  an  expression  foreign  to  the  New 
Testament ;  the  Spirit  was  not  a  belief,  but  an  ex- 
perience, of  the  early  Christian.  It  was  his  first  experi- 
ence. He  began  in  the  Spirit.  His  new  life  started  as 
an  inspiration,  an  experience  of  uplifting,  liberty,  and 
power.  Its  predominant  manifestations  might  be  emo- 
tional, intellectual,  or  ethical,  but  its  standing  mark  was 
originality.  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was  there 
was  liberty.  The  Spirit  was  subject  to  no  law  but 
that  which  was  involved  in  its  own  nature ;  there  was 
no  motive  for  that  which  it  dictated  but  the  motives 
operating  through  Christ  crucified.  Everything  sta- 
tutory disappeared  from  religion.  Christ  was  the  end 
of  law  to  those  who  came  under  His  power.  Rehgious 
materialism  and  religious  routine  were  abolished. 

But  Paul  was  not  the  only  preacher  who  appeared 
in  Galatia.  He  had  hardly  left  the  country  when 
others  appeared  in  his  track.  They  had  a  new  "pla- 
card "  to  exhibit,  and  they  were  not  afraid  to  raise  it 
side  by  side  with  the  Apostle's  Christ  crucified.  It 
was  a  placard  on  which  were  engrossed  the  countless 
formal  precepts  of  the  Jewish  law — its  covenant  badge 
of  circumcision — its  sacred  calendar,  with  its  days,  and 
months,  and  seasons,  and  years — its  distinctions  of  food 
into  clean  and  unclean — its  whole  system  of  visible, 
statutory,  outwardly  imposed  ordinances  in  which  the 
religious  life  was  to  be  embodied  and  expressed. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  passing  strange  as  it  certainly 
seemed  to  the  Apostle,  this  placard  also  had  its  fascina- 
tion.    It  exerted  a  malignant  spell  over  the  Galatians 


270  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

which  checked  if  it  did  not  neutralize  the  beneficent 
spell  of  the  cross.  They  actually  thought  they  were 
making  progress,  reaching  a  higher  stage  of  religion, 
when  the  gracious  power  of  the  cross  which  had 
worked  their  spiritual  emancipation  ceased  to  be  felt ; 
and  when,  instead  of  exulting  in  the  liberty  and  re- 
sponsibility which  it  had  brought,  they  were  scrupu- 
lous about  rites  and  ceremonies,  times  and  seasons,  and 
in  general  about  laws  which  were  not  inspired  but  im- 
posed. The  Apostle,  who  was  their  spiritual  father, 
was  alarmed  and  distressed.  He  could  not  understand 
such  an  unchristian  relapse.  This  progress  !  he  ex- 
claims ;  this  a  step  towards  perfection !  Can  folly  go 
so  far  ?  Having  begun  in  the  Spirit^  with  a  great  in- 
ward liberation,  renewal,  and  reinforcement  of  life 
wrought  by  God  through  Christ  crucified,  can  you 
imagine  that  you  are  carrying  your  Christian  life  to 
perfection  when  you  abandon  all  this,  and  submit  once 
more  to  statutory  observances  that  only  touch  the 
outer  life,  or  to  put  it  a  little  scornfully,  the  flesh? 

This  is  the  situation  which  the  verse  presents  to  us, 
and  we  may  generalize  it  in  order  to  apply  it  to  ourselves. 
Religion  begins  in  inspiration,  that  is,  in  enthusiastic 
inner  freedom  begotten  by  Christ  in  the  soul,  and  own- 
ing an  absolute  responsibility  to  Him,  and  to  Him 
alone ;  but  it  is  only  too  apt  to  belie  its  origin  and  its 
true  nature,  and  instead  of  cherishing  inspiration  and 
liberty  as  the  very  breath  of  its  life,  to  relapse  into 
fixity,  ceremonial  and  routine,  and  actually  to  glorify 
these  as  the  authentic  tokens  of  the  Divine.  Let  us 
look  at  some  illustrations  of  this. 

I.  The  most  conspicuous,  perhaps,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  sphere  of  thought.     A  free-thinker  is  a  name  of 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  271 

evil  import  in  the  Christian  Church,  yet  when  we  think 
of  it,  no  men  were  ever  so  free  in  their  thinking  as 
those  who  wrote  the  New  Testament.  Whatever  else 
the  New  Testament  is,  it  is  the  most  original  book  in 
the  world  The  mind  of  the  Apostles  was  inconceiv- 
ably stimulated  by  the  impression  made  on  it  by  Christ : 
I  cannot  think  of  anything  which  gives  one  so  vivid 
a  sense  of  intelligence  working  at  high  pressure,  and 
seeing  new  worlds  of  truth  open  before  it  while  it 
works,  as  some  parts  of  the  epistles.  It  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  Paul  and  John  were  the  most  daring 
free-thinkers  who  ever  lived.  They  had  no  creed  or 
catechism  to  follow  :  they  do  not  quote  anyone,  hardly 
even  Jesus  Himself;  they  were  not  "sound"  in  any 
traditional  sense,  but  original ;  they  were  not  orthodox, 
but  inspired.  They  reconstruct  the  whole  world  in 
thought  for  themselves,  with  Christ  as  its  Alpha  and 
Omega,  its  source,  its  centre,  and  its  goal.  Nobody 
had  done  this  before,  and  no  outward  law  imposed 
such  thoughts  upon  them ;  they  were  thoughts  freely 
produced  from  within  by  men  who  felt  that  they  were 
both  free  and  bound  to  think  and  speak  as  they  did. 

This  liberty  of  mind,  if  we  do  not  like  to  call  it  free- 
dom of  thought,  is  not  inconsistent  with  a  harmonious 
witness  to  Jesus,  but  it  enables  the  Apostles  to  combine 
variety  with  unity,  and  to  bring  out  different  elements 
in  thei  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  The  fundamental 
unity  of  the  apostolic  religion  is  unquestionable :  it  is 
one  and  the  same  Christ  who  is  Lord  and  Saviour 
to  all  who  speak  to  us  in  the  New  Testament.  But 
though  Christ  is  the  same  in  all,  yet  to  Paul  He  is  pre- 
dominantly the  Christ  who  atones  for  sin  and  brings 
the  gift  of  a  Divine  righteousness ;  to  John,  He  is  the 


272  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Son  who  reveals  the  Father  and  communicates  eternal 
life  ;  to  James,  He  is  the  Lawgiver  and  the  Judge ;  to 
Peter,  the  Author  of  immortal  hope ;  and  in  Hebrews, 
the  great  High  Priest  of  humanity.  These  concep- 
tions do  not  contradict,  they  supplement  each  other ; 
but  they  rose  in  the  minds  of  the  Apostles  only  as  they 
stood  in  the  presence  of  Christ  crucified,  and  let  His 
influence  tell  upon  them  unchecked  and  untroubled 
by  any  authority  from  without  The  wealth  and  the 
liberty  go  together.  And  it  is  the  same  when  we  think 
of  the  intellectual  reconstruction  of  the  world  in  the 
epistle  to  the  Colossians.  Only  a  mind  which  was 
absolutely  free,  and  which  experienced  at  the  same 
time  an  irresistible  compulsion  in  the  revelation  of  God 
in  Christ  crucified,  could  have  ventured  to  give  a  new 
interpretation  of  the  universe  in  the  light  cast  by  the 
cross. 

But  though  this  intellectual  freedom,  which  is  illus- 
trated on  every  page  of  the  New  Testament,  is  the 
proper  attribute  of  Christian  minds — the  atmosphere  in 
which  they  live  and  move  and  have  their  being — how 
many  there  are  in  the  Church  who  seem  to  be  fasci- 
nated by  the  very  opposite.  What  they  think  indis- 
pensable, what  they  pride  themselves  upon,  is  not 
inspiration,  not  the  stimulation  of  intelligence  by  the 
crucified  Christ,  but  orthodoxy,  soundness,  fidelity  to 
a  formula  in  which  the  truth  has  once  for  all  been  em- 
bodied, and  which  is  never  to  be  subject  to  reflection 
or  revision  any  more.  They  chain  themselves  to  some 
form  of  sound  words,  and  find  in  this  a  guarantee  that 
they  are  in  the  ideal  Christian  position.  They  accept 
some  creed  as  a  law  of  faith,  a  statute  imposed  upon 
them  by  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  everything 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  273 

turns  for  them  on  unwavering  fidelity  to  this.  But  the 
Church  of  any  given  age  is  an  assembly  of  fallible  men  ; 
and  no  one  who  knows  what  it  is  to  "begin  in  the 
Spirit" — no  one  who  has  experienced  that  deep-reach- 
ing, all-embracing  emancipation  which  comes  to  the 
intelligence  as  to  the  moral  nature  when  the  power  of 
Christ's  passion  descends  into  it — can  ever  identify  a 
law  of  the  Church  simpliciter  with  the  truth  of  God. 
It  does  not  matter  whether  it  issues  from  Nicaea  or 
Augsburg,  from  Trent  or  Westminster.  The  mind  that 
has  been  fascinated  by  Christ  Himself,  and  that  has 
begun  to  know  what  He  is  by  its  own  experience  of  what 
He  does,  must  never  barter  that  original  quickening 
and  emancipation,  and  what  it  learns  by  them,  for  any 
doctrine  defined  by  man.  It  is  a  false  progress  that  is 
promoted  by  unbending  conformity  to  creeds  and  con- 
fessions. The  only  way  to  become  perfect  is  to  cherish 
the  initial  liberating  impulse,  to  keep  our  being  open 
to  the  whole  stimulus  of  Christ,  to  grow  and  still  to 
grow  in  the  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour.  There  is  nothing  statutory  in  the  Christian 
life,  and  of  all  the  regions  of  life  the  intellectual  is  that 
in  which  statute  is  most  signally  out  of  place. 

2.  Another  instance  of  the  working  of  the  same 
principle  is  seen  in  the  tendency  to  stereotype  Chris- 
tian experience,  and  to  demand  that  in  all  natures  it 
shall  assume  precisely  the  same  forms.  What  is  pro- 
duced in  the  human  soul  when  Christ  crucified  is  pla- 
carded before  it  ?  Sometimes  there  is  apparently  a 
prevailing  type  of  experience  :  in  the  great  revival  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  for  example,  there  was  often 
an  overpowering  sense  of  sin,  which  was  suddenly 
swallowed  up  in  a  great  joy  and  peace  in  believing. 

18 


274  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Perhaps,  indeed,  such  types  are  not  so  prevalent  as  at 
the  time  they  seem  to  be ;  for  during  a  revival  there  is 
a  tendency  for  all  who  are  affected  to  interpret  their 
experience  according  to  the  established  formula,  and 
to  exhibit  it,  so  to  speak,  cast  in  a  mould  w^hich  may 
in  some  cases  really  be  incongruous  to  it.  But  in  any 
case  we  know  that  there  are  other  types.  The  spell 
of  Christ  crucified  may  exert  itself  in  other  ways ;  it 
may  exhibit  its  power  in  a  new  hungering  and  thirst- 
ing after  righteousness,  in  a  longing  to  see  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  Lord  realized  in  human  society,  in  a 
strange  new  birth  of  love  in  the  soul.  Such  new  or 
divergent  experiences  are  not  to  be  distrusted :  the 
one  thing  we  have  to  distrust  is  fixity,  the  tying  down 
of  the  cross  to  one  particular  mode  of  exercising  its 
power.  Theological  books  used  to  have  a  long  section 
headed  Ordo  salutis,  the  way  of  salvation.  It  discussed 
in  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  normal  order  such 
subjects  as  calling,  illumination,  conversion,  repentance, 
faith,  justification,  regeneration,  the  mystical  union, 
sanctification.  It  might  seem  the  very  region  in 
which  every  thing  was  sure  to  be  real,  because  it 
rested  on  experience  throughout ;  but  often  it  was 
vitiated  and  made  unreal  just  because  it  shrank  from 
giving  experience  its  due.  Its  wish  and  tendency 
was  to  reduce  experience  to  one  type :  to  show  that 
every  one  who  was  a  real  Christian  must  have  had  the 
proper  experiences  in  the  only  proper  order.  But  the 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  the  freedom  of  the 
Spirit  is  not  to  be  limited  by  any  assumed  way  of  sal- 
vation. In  grace  there  is  the  infinite  variety  which 
living  nature  itself  presents  ;  and  the  way  of  perfection 
is  not  to  reduce  all  genuine  Christianity  to  what  we 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  275 

think  the  true  pattern,  but  to  trust  and  recognize  as 
genuinely  Christian  all  experiences  which  men  owe  to 
Christ.  It  may  easily  be  the  one  crucified  Lord  Who 
begets  in  some  souls  the  passion  of  contrition  and  the 
joy  of  faith,  and  in  others  the  passion  of  love  for  the  sin- 
ful and  wretched,  and  joy  in  working  for  the  kingdom. 
The  only  thing  to  be  trusted  is  experience,  and  we 
must  take  care  not  to  distrust  it  on  the  ground  that  we 
have  the  measure  of  all  true  Christian  experience 
already  in  our  hands,  and  can  now  impose  that 
measure  as  a  law.  We  cannot.  There  is  no  such 
all-comprehending  law  known  to  us,  and  familiar  or 
unfamiliar  we  must  welcome  everything  that  Christ 
inspires. 

3.  The  same  reflections  are  suggested,  and  we  must 
let  the  same  considerations  weigh  with  us,  in  regard 
to  Christian  worship.  Worship  is  a  function  of  the 
Church,  and  in  its  worship,  as  in  its  thinking,  the 
Church  began  "in  the  Spirit."  Everything  in  its  wor- 
ship was  original,  and  every  one  might  contribute  to 
it  as  the  Spirit  impelled  him.  "When  ye  come  to- 
gether," Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  "each  one  hath 
a  psalm,  hath  a  teaching,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  a 
tongue,  hath  an  interpretation  ".  The  Apostle  does  not 
blame  this  nor  repress  it ;  he  only  attempts  to  regulate 
it.  He  lays  down  the  laws,  which  are  themselves 
suggested  by  the  Spirit,  of  edification  and  decorum. 
Nothing  is  to  have  a  place  in  worship  that  does  not 
build  up  the  Church,  or  that  is  in  itself  unseemly.  But 
short  of  this,  worship  is  free;  and  the  larger  the 
number  who  contribute  to  it  and  the  more  original  and 
independent  their  contributions  are,  the  more  perfect 
is  the  worship.       Paul  dreaded  the  imposition  of  re- 


276  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

strictions.  **  Quench  not  the  Spirit,"  he  said,  with 
this  very  danger  in  view.  Do  not  pour  cold  water  on 
your  fervent  brother  when  he  makes  his  contribution 
to  prayer  or  exhortation,  even  though  you  think  the 
fire  of  his  devotion  a  Httle  smoky.  It  will  burn  itself 
clear,  but  it  is  poor  policy  to  put  it  out. 

The  quenching  of  the  Spirit  in  worship,  however — 
the  relapse  in  the  Church's  collective  confession 
of  God  and  testimony  to  Him  from  inspiration  to 
routine — is  the  most  constant  feature  of  its  history. 
It  is  one  long  story  of  what  began  in  the  Spirit  trying 
to  make  itself  perfect  in  the  flesh.  At  a  very  early 
period  modes  of  worship  became  fixed — perhaps,  to 
begin  with,  modes  of  the  celebration  of  the  sacraments. 
Eventually,  however,  laws  were  made  for  every  part 
of  the  Church  service.  The  prayers  to  be  said,  the 
Psalms  to  be  sung,  the  Scriptures  to  be  read,  were  all 
fixed ;  often  it  was  fixed  by  custom  if  not  by  law,  that 
the  preacher  should  preach  from  the  Scripture  that 
had  been  read.  Nothing  was  left  to  inspiration  at  all. 
There  was  no  point  at  which  the  Spirit  could  manifest 
itself  even  if  it  would.  No  one  would  say  that  there 
are  no  advantages  in  this.  It  is  an  advantage  to  be 
protected  against  arbitrariness  and  caprice.  It  is  an 
advantage  to  have  noble  forms  of  worship,  even  if  we 
have  no  more,  and  not  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  people 
who  possibly  are  not  always  inspired.  It  is  more  than 
an  advantage,  it  is  a  necessity,  to  have  some  element 
of  orderly  habit  in  everything  which  is  to  last.  But 
surely  we  should  have  said  beforehand  that  no  one 
could  think  that  to  be  tied  to  such  forms,  unable  to 
vary  them  or  to  do  anything  outside  of  them,  was 
the  way  to  perfection.     Yet  strange  to  say  this  is  what 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  277 

many  think,  and  there  is  nothing  that  shocks  them 
more — nothing,  as  they  would  say,  that  is  more  offen- 
sive to  their  conscience  as  loyal  church  people — than 
the  idea  of  modifying  the  use  and  wont  of  worship. 
How  eloquent  they  can  be  about  its  accumulated  as- 
sociations, its  sacred  memories,  its  venerable  authority. 
One  Church  is  conscious  of  this  in  another,  but  not 
so  readily  in  itself.  Presbyterians  are  astounded  and 
amused  when  they  read  in  the  life  of  a  Tractarian 
bishop  of  Salisbury  that  he  had  such  a  reverence  for  the 
order  established  in  the  Church  that  he  would  not 
allow  any  deviation  from  it :  would  not  use  liberty, 
even  when  the  law  allowed  it,  as  in  choosing  readings 
for  harvest  thanksgiving  services,  or  in  omitting  the 
long  exhortation  in  the  Prayer  Book  at  early  com- 
munion ;  nay,  as  his  biographer  Canon  Liddon  tells 
us,  *'he  would  not  allow  his  chaplains  to  follow  the 
modern  fashion  of  leaving  off  bands  ".  But  Presbyter- 
ians can  see  these  things  without  looking  beyond  their 
own  borders.  Even  those  who  are  not  old  can  remember 
what  strange  things  have  been  said  and  done  in  the 
name  of  purity  of  worship,  as  if  purity  meant  petrifaction. 
Men  have  objected  to  beginning  public  worship  w^ith 
prayer  instead  of  with  praise.  They  have  objected  to  the 
use  of  hymns  in  public  worship  as  if  it  were  a  sin  now  to 
sing  a  new  song  to  the  Lord.  Certainly  worship  ought 
to  be  pure,  but  the  only  pure  worship  is  worship  in 
Spirit  and  in  truth.  The  more  it  is  inspired,  the  more 
certainly  will  we  have  new  songs,  new  prayers,  new 
testimonies,  whenever  the  Church  meets ;  the  body  of 
Christ  will  be  built  up  in  its  worship  by  that  which 
every  joint  supplies. 

I  do  not  think  it  can  be  questioned  that  the  absence 


278  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  this  freedom  in  worship — or  to  use  the  Apostle's  ex- 
pression, the  quenching  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  desire  to 
attain  under  law  and  routine  the  perfection  which  can 
only  be  reached  through  inspiration — is  an  evil  which 
is  deeply  felt  and  from  which  the  Church  is  at  present 
suffering  severely.  Few  Church  members  realize 
what  large  numbers  of  people  there  are  whose  hearts 
have  been  touched  and  quickened  by  Christ  crucified— 
who  have  responded  to  the  appeal  of  His  love — who 
have  in  short  *'  begun  in  the  Spirit  "—but  who  are  out- 
side of  the  fellowship  of  the  Churches  because  they 
could  not  enter  without  having  the  Spirit  quenched. 
They  associate  with  each  other  in  meetings  of  their 
own,  where  they  can  impart  to  each  other  some  spiritual 
gift ;  in  the  absence  of  forms  they  are  far  more  like  a 
New  Testament  Church  than  any  of  the  organized 
denominations  ;  and  though  they  have  often  the  draw- 
backs of  a  defective  education,  they  contain  a  great 
deal  of  the  most  vital  and  valuable  Christianity  of  the 
country.  The  Churches  have  lost  much,  which,  by 
abandoning  their  original  freedom,  have  made  it  im- 
possible for  such  Christians  to  remain  within  their 
borders.  They  ought  to  make  room  for  them.  A 
meeting  in  which  there  is  a  liberty  of  prayer  and  a 
liberty  of  prophesying — in  which  Christian  devotion 
can  be  expressed,  or  Christian  interests  and  duties 
discussed,  by  every  member  of  the  community — in 
which  the  free  Spirit  can  have  free  course  through  those 
whom  it  has  quickened  to  spiritual  issues,  is  indispens- 
able in  the  Church  if  it  is  to  fulfil  its  ideal.  It  began 
and  is  always  beginning  anew  in  the  Spirit,  and  it  will 
never  be  made  perfect  in  the  flesh.     It  began  and  is 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  279 

always  beginning  anew  in  enthusiasm  and  liberty,  and 
it  will  never  be  made  perfect  by  routine. 

4.  The  largest  application  which  could  be  made  of 
the  text  would  be  to  Christian  conduct  in  general. 
The  perfect  life,  in  the  Christian  sense,  is  that  which 
is  at  every  moment  inspired — that  in  which  statute 
is  abolished  and  conventions  have  no  more  power. 
Nothing  could  be  less  like  Christian  perfection  than 
what  has  sometimes  been  specially  designated  the 
perfect  life,  namely,  a  life  controlled  at  every  point  by 
monastic  rules.  The  obedience  of  the  monk,  who  has 
given  his  will  away  to  a  system  if  not  to  a  superior,  is 
not  the  path  to  perfection  ;  it  is  a  kind  of  moral  suicide. 
It  has  a  real  analogue  outside  of  monasteries  in  the 
timid  scrupulosity  to  which  everything  new  is  wrong, 
and  in  the  stolid  conscientiousness  which  without 
troubling  itself  about  the  opinions  or  the  needs  of 
others  restricts  itself  to  the  observance  of  established 
conventions.  We  do  not  need  to  say  or  to  think 
that  the  goodness  of  such  people  is  of  no  value  or 
serves  no  purpose.  Perhaps  it  acts  in  the  moral  world 
as  the  mass  of  small  investors  does  in  the  economic 
world  :  it  maintains  a  sort  of  equilibrium ;  respect- 
able people  are  not  so  easily  disturbed  and  thrown 
off  their  balance ;  it  would  be  too  much  for  them  if  all 
the  Lord's  people  were  prophets.  But  whatever  their 
value,  no  one  can  pretend  that  the  path  to  perfection 
is  to  be  found  in  stereotyping  ways  of  being  good  or 
of  doing  good.  Even  one  good  custom  can  corrupt  the 
world,  and  only  customs  which  in  the  strictest  sense 
can  become  second  nature  have  a  right  to  last  as  long 
as  nature  itself.     The  true  path  to  perfection  is  that  of 


28o  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

inspiration  :  it  is  the  path  revealed  to  those  who  stand 
in  the  presence  of  Christ  crucified  and  to  whom  every- 
thing is  legitimate — yes,  and  obligatory — which  finds 
its  motive  there. 

To  refer  to  only  one  illustration  of  this.  Every  one 
is  aware  of  the  degree  of  ineffectiveness  which  at 
present  marks  the  Church's  efforts  to  do  good  to  the 
world.  An  immense  amount  of  effort  seems  to  be  put 
forth  with  no  adequate  result.  Those  who  have  a 
real  connexion  with  the  Church  and  who  take  a  real 
interest  in  it  are  few.  To  a  large  extent  it  seems  to 
be  beating  the  air,  and  even  among  its  sincere  members 
there  are  many  who  have  little  sense  that  they  stand 
for  anything  inspired  and  inspiring.  Is  not  that  in 
great  measure  because  the  Church,  in  a  world  in  which 
everything  is  alive  and  moving,  has  sunk  too  much 
from  inspiration  to  routine  ?  It  goes  on  doing  what 
it  once  did  with  effect,  but  what  is  effective  no  longer, 
because  all  around  it  has  changed.  We  want  to  dis- 
cover, not  a  new  Gospel,  but  new  ways  of  reaching 
man  with  the  Gospel ;  a  new^  intellectual  construction 
of  it  which  will  answer  to  the  ideals  of  truth  and 
knowledge  in  the  mind  of  our  own  time — a  new 
utterance  for  it  in  the  language  of  those  to  whom  it  is 
preached — new  ways  of  helping  the  poor — new  ways  of 
exerting  an  influence  on  the  social  life  in  which  we  all 
share — new  modes  of  approaching  those  who  need  the 
Gospel  but  do  not  want  it ;  a  new  gift  of  inspiration, 
in  short,  telling  on  our  life  in  every  direction.  This 
is  the  way  to  perfection,  and  to  apply  it  to  our  methods 
of  worship  and  of  work  is  entirely  in  the  line  of  the 
Apostle's  thought.  Perfection  does  not  come  by 
statute.     It  does  not  come  by  adherence  to  routine. 


RIVAL  PATHS  TO  PERFECTION  281 

It  does  not  come  by  reverence  for  use  and  wont,  how- 
ever hallowed  and  venerable.  It  comes  by  receiving 
the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  is  received  at  the  cross.  It 
enters  into  us  as  we  come  under  the  spell  of  that  great 
love,  and  as  it  enters  it  makes  us  free.  We  are  born 
again  into  newness  of  life,  and  it  is  in  that  newness 
perpetually  renewed,  and  not  in  the  oldness  of  the 
letter — not  in  any  fidelity  to  established  rules  or  usages 
— that  we  are  to  serve  God.  Only  as  we  stand  in  the 
presence  of  Christ  crucified,  and  looking  out  on  the 
world  and  its  needs  feel  that  we  are  at  once  free  and 
bound  to  serve  it  in  every  way  which  the  love  kindled 
in  us  by  the  cross  inspires,  are  we  in  the  truly  Chris- 
tian attitude.  It  is  the  attitude  in  which  goodness  is 
not  imposed,  but  creative.  It  is  the  attitude  of  the 
new  man  for  whom  all  that  is  old  has  passed  away. 
The  blighting  power  of  routine  has  passed,  and  in  the 
new  life  of  the  Spirit,  with  its  enthusiasm  and  liberty, 
the  hope  of  perfection  is  opened  to  us  at  last. 


A  GOOD  WORK. 

"  And  being  in  Bethany  in  the  house  of  Simon  the  leper,  as  He  sat 
at  meat,  there  came  a  woman  having  an  alabaster  box  of  oint- 
ment of  spikenard  very  precious  ;  and  she  brake  the  box,  and 
poured  it  on  His  head."— Mark  xiv.  3. 

The  story  of  the  anointing  at  Bethany,  an  incident 
which  deeply  moved  Jesus  and  which  shines  out  with 
a  radiance  of  its  own  even  on  the  pages  of  the  Gospel, 
is  set  by  the  evangelist  in  a  very  sombre  frame.  In 
itself  the  outburst  of  a  great  devotion  to  Jesus,  it  is 
preceded  by  an  account  of  the  malignity  of  His  enemies, 
and  followed  by  that  of  the  treachery  of  one  of  His 
friends.  The  chief  priests  and  the  scribes,  we  are  told 
at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  sought  how  they  might 
take  Him  by  craft  and  put  Him  to  death.  The  one 
thing  which  embarrassed  them  was  the  presence  in 
Jerusalem  of  the  Galilean  admirers  of  Jesus ;  if  any 
violence  were  attempted  there  might  be  a  popular 
rising  in  His  favour.  From  this  embarrassment  they 
were  delivered  by  Judas.  The  assistance  of  one  of 
the  twelve  enabled  them  to  act  with  speed  and  se- 
crecy ;  perhaps  they  thought  it  would  also  do  some- 
thing to  discredit  Jesus  with  the  multitude,  when  His 
own  followers  turned  against  Him.  It  is  apparent 
from  the  fourth  Gospel  that  the  promptitude  with  which 
Judas  acted  was  not  unconnected  with  the  incident 
at  Bethany :  Judas  was  prominent  among  those  who 

(282) 


A  GOOD  WORK  283 

misread  the  act  of  Mary,  and  exposed  themselves  to 
the  Lord's  rebuke.  But  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss 
either  his  character  in  general  or  his  immediate  motive 
in  betraying  Jesus.  I  cannot  overcome  the  feeling 
that  there  is  something  morally  unwholesome  and  in- 
sincere in  all  speculative  discussions  of  this  sort.  They 
are  exercises  of  moral  ingenuity  upon  a  subject  which 
is  exhibited  in  Scripture  to  excite  moral  horror.  They 
are  attempts  to  revise  a  sentence  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal :  *'  Good  were  it  for  that  man  if  he  had  never 
been  born  ".  The  interest  of  the  references  to  Judas 
here  is  only  that  his  conduct  serves  as  a  foil  to  that  of 
Mary. 

It  was  in  the  circumstances  just  described,  while  the 
net  of  His  enemies  was  swiftly  closing  in  upon  Him, 
that  Jesus  was  entertained  at  Bethany  by  a  circle  of 
His  friends.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  how  far  they  ap- 
preciated the  circumstances,  or  had  any  definite  idea 
of  what  was  impending.  On  the  way  to  Jerusalem 
He  had  repeatedly  spoken  of  His  death,  but  if  there 
were  those  among  His  disciples  who  had  an  uneasy 
sense  of  something  ominous  in  the  air,  there  were 
those  also  who  thought  that  the  kingdom  of  God  should 
immediately  appear.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  Jesus 
was  alone.  He  sat  among  His  friends,  but  His  mind 
was  absorbed  in  thoughts  which  most  of  them  did  not 
divine.  This  is  one  of  the  trials  of  life  which  has  in 
its  measure  to  be  borne  by  all.  We  have  to  live,  to 
take  our  part  in  bright  scenes,  to  see  smiling  faces  and 
listen  to  cheerful  voices,  while  our  hearts  are  sad  with- 
in us,  and  death  unseen  by  others  is  at  our  door.  We 
may  be  sure  that  no  shadow  was  cast  on  the  company 
by  the  preoccupation  of  Jesus  with  what  was  about  to 


284  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

befall  Him  ;  He  would  bear  His  own  burden  and  not 
obtrude  His  anxiety  on  others.  But  there  must  have 
been  a  certain  tension  of  feeling  in  the  company  ;  and 
its  pressure  in  one  heart  was  relieved  by  the  act  de- 
scribed in  the  text.  "  There  came  a  woman  having  an 
alabaster  box  of  ointment  of  spikenard  very  precious ; 
and  she  brake  the  box,  and  poured  it  on  His  head." 
Anointing  is  not  a  Western  custom,  and  the  use  of 
such  perfumes  is  rather  counted  unmanly  among  us, 
but  in  the  East  it  was  otherwise.  In  the  hot  and 
stifling  climate  it  was  grateful  and  refreshing,  and  to 
anoint  one's  guests  was  an  ordinary  courtesy  the  neglect 
of  which  was  noticed  and  felt  by  Jesus.  But  this  was 
no  ordinary  anointing.  It  was  distinguished  by  the 
costliness  of  the  perfume,  and  by  the  lavish  generosity 
with  which  it  was  poured  out.  Not  a  word  was  said ; 
the  act  itself  said  all  that  was  necessary  to  those 
who  were  worthy  to  understand  it.  An  ancient  Greek 
poet  describes  his  poems  as  **  having  a  voice  for  the 
intelligent,"  and  this  woman's  act  has  the  character  of 
a  poem.  It  has  "  the  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds,  more 
strong  than  all  poetic  thought  ".  In  some  way  it  must 
have  come  from  a  sense  of  debt  to  Jesus.  Mary  owed 
to  the  Lord  what  she  could  never  repay.  She  had  sat 
at  His  feet  and  heard  His  word.  She  had  received  her 
brother  again  from  the  dead  ;  she  had  herself  received 
the  life  eternal.  She  had  a  finer  sense  than  others 
that  Jesus  could  not  be  with  them  long,  and  she  must 
do  something  to  give  expression  to  her  feelings.  The 
ointment  was  nothing  ;  she  was  pouring  out  her  heart 
at  Jesus'  feet. 

The  Gospel  narratives,  in  showing  how  the  act  of 
Mary  was  understood  and  misunderstood  by  those  who 


A  GOOD  WORK  285 

witnessed  it,  invite  us  to   consider  the  principles  on 
which  actions  can  be  or  ought  to  be  judged. 

1.  The  standard  which  first  occurs  to  every  one  is 
that  of  duty  or  law.  The  right  action  is  one  that  is 
enjoined  upon  us  by  the  law,  one  which  an  external 
rule  makes  obligatory,  and  which  we  dare  not  neglect. 
It  is  obvious  that  this  is  a  standard  of  which  we  can 
here  make  no  use  at  all.  There  was  no  law  which 
required  Mary  to  act  as  she  did,  and  no  one  could  say 
that  a  law  had  been  broken  or  that  duty  had  been 
neglected  even  though  the  anointing  at  Bethany  had 
never  taken  place. 

2.  But  there  is  another  standard  by  which  we  may 
judge  of  actions — not  the  standard  of  duty,  but  that  of 
utility.  We  may  think  not  of  what  it  is  obligatory 
upon  us  to  do,  but  of  what  it  is  sensible,  reasonable, 
profitable  for  us  to  do.  This  was  the  standard  which 
was  applied  by  some  of  those  who  were  present  on 
the  occasion,  and  particularly  by  Judas.  To  them  the 
anointing  was  waste.  It  was  the  more  reprehensible 
because  there  were  so  many  better  things  which  might 
have  been  done  at  the  same  cost.  **It  might  have 
been  sold  for  more  than  three  hundred  pence  and 
given  to  the  poor."  We  all  feel  that  this  utilitarian 
estimate  of  Mary's  action  is,  to  say  the  least,  unsympa- 
thetic :  it  is  no  use  asking  what  is  the  good  of  such 
and  such  an  action  if  the  actor  is  quite  indifferent 
about  the  good  of  it  in  your  sense  of  the  term.  You 
cannot  convict  him  of  any  wrong  by  showing  that 
there  is  no  profit  in  what  he  has  done,  unless  he  did 
it  for  such  profit,  or  unless  such  profit  is  the  only 
legitimate  end  of  action.  What  the  disciples  did  when 
they  exclaimed,  why  was  this  waste  of  the  ointment 


286  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

made  ?  was  really  to  interpret  through  the  senses  an 
action  which  proceeded  from  the  soul,  and  could  only 
disclose  its  meaning  to  the  soul.  Perhaps  they  were 
ashamed  the  moment  the  word  "  waste  "  had  passed 
their  lips,  and  tried  to  cover  their  confusion  by  the 
suggestion  that  it  might  have  been  given  to  the  poor  : 
this  is  no  unusual  experience.  Anyhow  we  must  re- 
member they  were  poor  men,  and  that  to  squander 
in  one  impulsive  instant,  for  no  visible  object,  a  whole 
year's  wages  of  a  working  man,  might  well  put  them 
out  of  their  reckoning  for  the  moment.  But  we  must 
take  care  also  not  to  share  their  mistake.  To  waste, 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  no  one  could  be  more 
opposed  than  Jesus.  It  is  He  who  says,  "Gather  up 
the  fragments  that  remain  that  nothing  be  lost ".  But 
generosity  is  not  waste.  The  affections  need  to  be 
nourished,  and  they  are  only  nourished  by  the  kind  of 
giving  which  looks  for  no  return.  They  need  to  be 
nourished  even  in  the  interest  of  the  poor,  and  it  is  no 
genuine  care  for  the  poor  which  would  check  their 
spontaneous,  impulsive,  even  exuberant  action.  The 
hope  of  the  poor  lies  in  the  kindness  and  generosity  of 
human  hearts,  and  kindness  and  generosity  are  fostered 
not  by  considerations  of  what  is  sensible,  but  by  kind 
and  generous  deeds.  It  was  Mary  who  wasted  the 
ointment  and  Judas  who  put  forward  the  case  of  the 
poor  :  but  who  will  believe  that  Judas  was  a  better 
friend  to  the  poor  than  Mary  ?  There  is,  of  course, 
such  a  thing  as  senseless  extravagance,  and  even  in 
the  generosity  of  love  there  may  be  a  trace  of  vanity — 
a  man  may  be  proud  of  himself  in  the  gift  he  bestows 
on  his  wife ;  but  the  true  wealth  of  the  world  lies  in 
generous  feeling,  and  there  is  no  wisdom,  nor  economy. 


A  GOOD  WORK  287 

nor  care  for  the  poor,  in  suppressing  the  instinctive 
movements  of  the  heart.  The  soul  is  not  to  be  judged 
and  snubbed  by  the  senses  ;  it  has  laws  of  its  own  of 
which  the  senses  know  nothing,  and  they  are  signally 
illustrated  in  this  act. 

3.  This  brings  us  to  the  third  standard  by  which 
actions  may  be  interpreted — not  duty,  or  utility,  but 
love.  Jesus  undertakes  the  defence  of  the  woman 
against  those  who  misunderstood  or  complained  of 
her.  "  Let  her  alone  ;  why  trouble  ye  her  ?  she  hath 
wrought  a  good  work  upon  Me.  For  ye  have  the 
poor  with  you  always,  and  whensoever  ye  will  ye 
may  do  them  good  :  but  Me  ye  have  not  always.  She 
hath  done  what  she  could  :  she  is  come  aforehand  to 
anoint  My  body  to  the  burying."  If  we  observe  the 
main  points  in  this  defence  we  shall  see  the  character- 
istics of  the  action  which  so  deeply  moved  Jesus  that 
He  conferred  on  it  an  immortality  of  fame.  **  Where- 
soever this  Gospel  shall  be  preached  throughout  the 
whole  world,  this  also  that  she  hath  done  shall  be 
spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of  her." 

There  are  three  points  in  the  defence  of  Mary  by 
Jesus  which  seem  to  call  for  particular  attention. 

{a)  In  describing  what  she  has  done  as  "a  good 
work,"  He  judges  not  by  the  senses,  but  by  the  soul. 
He  does  not  mean  that  it  was  legally  binding,  or  that 
it  was  economically  sensible,  but  that  it  has  the  charm 
of  moral  originality  and  inspiration  on  it,  like  the  works 
of  God.  The  right  which  is  thus  inspired  is  not  only 
right,  but  lovely,  a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy  for  ever. 
The  house  was  filled  with  the  odour  of  the  ointment, 
and  the  fragrance  of  this  surpassingly  beautiful  deed 
has  never  faded  from  the  Church.     It  was  grateful  to 


288  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Christ  as  the  unsought  unbidden  act  of  a  child's  love 
is  dear  to  the  mother — as  an  unexpected  gift  of  the 
bridegroom,  with  no  motive  but  love,  is  dear  to  the 
bride — as  everything  into  which  the  heart  pours  its 
passion  is  dear  to  those  on  whom  it  is  bestowed,  in 
proportion  as  they  are  worthy  of  it.  The  motive  of 
love,  and  the  originality  and  spontaneity  which  ac- 
company this  motive,  must  characterize  all  actions 
which  win  the  commendation  of  Jesus.  The  right 
must  not  have  sunk  in  them  into  a  tradition.  It  must 
not  have  been  degraded  into  the  observance  of  a 
statute.  It  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  sensible 
or  the  expedient  which  can  be  justified  on  utilitarian 
grounds.  If  it  is  to  be  recognized  by  Jesus  as  Divinely 
right  it  must  be  incalculable,  spontaneous,  creative  in 
its  originality,  a  new  revelation  of  what  the  good  can 
be.  It  is  only  then  that  Jesus  can  say  of  it  emphatic- 
ally, as  He  did  of  Mary's  act  of  devotion,  '*a  good 
work  ". 

{b)  The  second  important  point  in  the  defence  of 
Mary  by  Jesus  is  contained  in  the  allusion  to  His  death. 
"  Me  ye  have  not  always  .  .  .  she  is  come  aforehand 
to  anoint  My  body  to  the  burying."  I  have  said 
already  that  we  hardly  know  how  far  the  company 
present  at  the  Supper  had  entered  into  Jesus'  anticipa- 
tions of  the  end.  It  is  a  fair  inference  from  these 
words  that  Mary  had  entered  into  them  more  deeply 
than  the  others.  Even  if  she  had  no  definite  idea  of 
His  burial  in  her  mind — and  it  is  unlikely  that  she  had 
— she  may  quite  well  have  divined  more  clearly  than 
others  what  was  absorbing  the  mind  of  Jesus ;  she 
may  have  felt,  as  they  did  not,  that  they  were  not  to 
have  Him  with  them  long.     It  was  out  of  some  such 


A  GOOD  WORK  289 

sympathy  with  Jesus,  deep  and  passionate  though 
obscure,  that  she  acted ;  and  Jesus,  we  might  almost 
say,  only  gave  it  clearness  and  took  it  at  its  real  value 
when  He  said,  "She  hath  done  it  for  My  burial". 
Now  this  kind  of  sympathy,  which  feels  what  it  can- 
not see,  and  which  gives  a  depth  and  scope  to  action 
beyond  what  the  actor  himself  can  grasp  at  the  mo- 
ment, is  also  essential  to  "a  good  work".  Nothing 
is  supremely  good  that  we  understand  beforehand  all 
round  and  through  and  through.  There  must  be 
something  operative  in  it  which  goes  beyond  us; 
motives  of  which  we  cannot  give  a  full  and  clear 
account,  but  which  connect  us  somehow  with  God. 
It  is  insensibility  to  such  larger  if  less-defined  realities 
which  makes  conduct  small  and  disappointing,  and 
heaps  up  legacies  of  remorse.  What  a  solemn  shadow 
it  would  cast  upon  the  company  at  Bethany  to  realize 
that  with  death  so  close  at  hand  they  should  grudge 
love  the  opportunity  of  showing  itself  without  count- 
ing the  cost !  Even  the  miserly  soul  becomes  generous 
in  such  a  case.  The  most  grasping  man  does  not 
grudge  anything  to  make  his  love  real  and  dear  to  the 
wife  or  the  child  that  is  slipping  from  his  grasp.  He 
does  not  know  what  good  it  can  do,  but  he  must  do 
it.  But  in  all  that  company  at  Bethany  the  one  who 
was  in  deepest  sympathy  with  the  Master  was  the  one 
whom  the  rest  could  not  understand :  an  unhappy 
memory  for  them !  Let  us  note  it,  as  a  further  mark 
of  what  is  divinely  good,  that  it  must  be  inspired  by 
a  sensitive  sympathy  with  Jesus,  a  sympathy  which 
enables  us  to  divine  His  mind  even  when  it  is  not  for- 
mally expressed. 

(c)  The  third  point  in  the  defence  is  contained  in 

19 


290  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

the  words,  "  She  hath  done  what  she  could  ".     Unfor- 
tunately this  expression  is  capable  of  being  misunder- 
stood, and  has  indeed  been  widely  understood  in  a  sense 
exactly  the  opposite  of  that  which  it  was  intended  to 
bear.       In  our  modern  idiom,   "she  hath  done  what 
she  could  "  is  almost  as  much  apologetic  as  eulogistic. 
The  undertone  is,  **  It  was  not  much,  of  course,  but 
what  more  could  one  expect  ?     There  is  no  room  for 
reproach  or  censure."      This,  I  say,  is  precisely  the 
reverse  of  what  the  words  mean.     The  disciples  did 
not  reproach  the  woman  for  doing  so  little,  but  for  do- 
ing so  much  ;  and  Jesus  justified  her,  not  by  reducing 
her  act  to  smaller  proportions,  but  by  revealing  it  in 
all   its   depth    and   height,  and    showing   that  it  was 
greater  than  she  herself  knew.     The  only  close  ana- 
logy to  it  which  I  can  recall  in  Scripture  is  the  story 
told  in  2  Samuel  chapter  XXIII.     "And  David  longed 
and  said,  O  that  one  would  give  me  drink  of  the  water 
of  the  well  of  Bethlehem  which  is  by  the  gate  !     And 
the  three  mighty  men  brake  through  the  host  of  the 
Philistines,  and  drew  water  out  of  the  well  of  Bethle- 
hem, that  was  by  the  gate,  and  took  it  and  brought 
it  to  David  :  nevertheless  he  would  not  drink  thereof, 
but  poured  it  out  unto  the  Lord.     And  he  said.  Be  it 
far  from  me,  O  Lord,  that  I  should  do  this  :  is  not  this 
the  blood  of  the  men  that  went  in  jeopardy  of  their 
lives  ?  "     The  true  sense  of  the  words  of  Jesus  is  seen 
if  we  apply  them  to  the  three  mighty  men  and  their 
heroic  achievement.     They  did  what  they  could.     They 
saw  the  opportunity  for  showing  their  devotion   to 
their  king,  for  doing  him  the  smallest  service  at  the 
most  tremendous  hazard  ;  they  saw  it  and  seized   it. 
They  rose  to  the  occasion,  and  they  rose  at  the  same 


A  GOOD  WORK  291 

instant  to  the  height  of  their  valour  and  their  fame. 
So  did  Mary  of  Bethany.  She  responded  to  the  mood 
of  jesus  with  the  same  instinctive  loyalty  with  which 
the  mighty  men  responded  to  the  longing  of  David  ; 
she  saw  what  the  moment  required,  and  was  equal  to 
it  ;  she  met  a  heart  over  which  the  shadow  of  death 
was  darkening  with  an  uncalculating  outburst  of  love 
which  was  inexpressibly  grateful  to  Jesus.  But  while 
the  magnanimous  King  of  Israel  dared  not  accept  the 
gift  of  his  mighty  men,  and  felt  that  devotion  like 
theirs  was  too  much  for  any  human  being,  and  that  he 
must  pour  out  the  water  they  had  brought  at  the 
hazard  of  their  lives  as  an  offering  to  the  Lord — a  proof 
that  with  David  and  his  heroes  it  was  like  master  like 
man — Jesus  welcomes  the  devotion  of  Mary,  and  re- 
wards it  with  undying  fame.  He  does  not  excuse, 
he  glorifies  her  when  he  says,  "  She  has  done  what 
she  could." 

This,  then,  is  another  mark  of  what  Jesus  means  by 
"a  good  work  "  :  it  is  a  work  signalized  by  generosity, 
abandonment,  uncalculating  devotion,  and  that  on  an 
occasion  on  which  others  see  no  call  for  anything  un- 
usual. There  is  indeed  an  appeal  in  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  but  it  is  too  subtle  for  the  unsympathetic 
to  feel  it,  and  too  searching  for  the  ungenerous  to 
respond  to  it.  They  never  become  aware  of  the 
chances  they  lose  of  doing  such  good  works  and 
winning  Christ's  praise.  They  are  apt  to  criticize  de- 
votion, as  the  sensible  people  at  Bethany  criticized 
Mary,  but  such  criticism  is  only  a  proof  that  the  moral 
intelligence  and  the  moral  nature  are  alike  unde- 
veloped.    *'  Want  of  tenderness  is  want  of  parts." 

I  shall  conclude  with  two  observations  on  this  story, 


292  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  a  more  general  purport.  The  first  is  that  the  act  of 
Mary  illustrates  the  Gospel.  It  does  so  in  a  way  so 
unmistakable  that  Jesus  Himself  secures  it  its  place  in 
the  Gospel  for  ever.  It  is  told  for  a  memorial  of  Mary, 
but  it  is  told  also  to  reveal  Jesus.  It  is  a  characteristic 
page  in  His  life,  exhibiting  at  once  His  conception  of 
what  is  morally  lovely,  and  His  power  to  evoke  the 
reality  of  it  in  the  souls  of  others.  Here  we  see  the 
very  spirit  of  Jesus.  He  is  one  who  gives  without  cal- 
culating. When  do  we  most  feel  inclined  to  say,  "To 
what  purpose  is  this  waste  ?  "  Is  it  not  when  we  look 
at  His  life  and  death — at  the  tears  He  shed  over  the 
impenitent,  at  the  patience  with  which  He  sought 
those  who  refused  to  be  found,  at  the  love  He  lavished 
on  those  who  would  not  love  Him  in  return  ?  Is 
this  sensible?  No,  but  it  is  Divine.  It  cannot  be 
justified  on  prudential  or  utilitarian  grounds,  but  it 
does  not  need  to  be  justified  to  love.  Yet  even  Chris- 
tian theologians  have  argued  for  a  limited  atonement 
on  the  ground  that  upon  any  other  theory  the  love  of 
Christ  was  "wasted  " — thrown  away  for  nothing.  As 
if  it  were  not  the  very  tragedy  of  being  lost  that  some 
men  can  perish  in  a  world  in  which  Christ  died  for  all. 
The  utmost  devotion  of  which  human  souls  are  capable 
is  only  the  reflex  of  that  love  with  which  He  gave  Him- 
self a  ransom  for  us,  and  nothing  less  than  the  utmost 
devotion  on  our  part  bears  any  proportion  to  that  which 
has  been  demonstrated  by  Him. 

The  second  observation  is  this :  the  act  of  Mary 
judges  those  who  judge  it.  It  provokes  criticism,  but 
the  criticism  recoils.  It  is  carped  at  by  the  selfish,  but 
the  selfish  are  always  hypocrites :  they  always  have 
reasons  on  their  side,  and   they  always  have  love — 


A  GOOD  WORK  293 

which  is  the  supreme  moral  reason — against  them.  It 
is  not  a  bad  way  to  test  what  we  are,  to  ask  whether 
we  have  ever  done  an  impulsive,  enthusiastic,  extrava- 
gant thing  in  love.  Have  you  ever  done  any  such 
thing  for  your  mother  or  your  wife,  for  your  church  or 
your  city,  for  a  stranger  or  a  friend  ?  If  so,  it  is  a  good 
omen.  But  show  me  the  man  who  has  never  in  a 
moment  of  high  feeling  spent  what  he  could  not  justify 
on  economical  grounds,  and  I  will  show  you  a  man  not 
fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  "Magnanimity  owes  pru- 
dence no  account  of  its  motives."  Love  is  not  bound 
to  justify  itself  to  the  utilitarian ;  but  the  utilitarian 
will  one  day  have  to  plead  his  cause  at  the  bar  of  love, 
and  will  find  that  he  has  none.  Immortality,  according 
to  Scripture,  does  not  belong  to  the  economists  and  the 
sensible  men,  but  to  the  martyrs;  not  to  those  whose 
aim  is  to  save  their  lives,  but  to  those  who  are  willing 
to  spend  and  be  spent  to  the  utmost  for  a  cause  greater 
than  life  itself.  It  is  in  them  that  Jesus  sees  of  the 
travail  of  His  soul  and  is  satisfied. 


PROPITIATION.i 

"  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins :  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for 
the  whole  world."— i  John  ii.  2. 

Within  the  last  twelve  months  foreign  missions  have 
been  more  talked  about  in  the  Church  than  at  anytime 
I  can  remember.  The  appeals  made  in  connexion  with 
them  have  been  frequent  and  importunate.  The  cause 
has  been  pleaded  with  every  kind  of  argument.  The 
actual  condition  of  the  non-Christian  world  has  been 
presented  to  us  with  a  fullness  and  distinctness  once 
impossible  :  we  have  been  shown  in  all  its  aspects  what 
the  life  is  which  is  waiting  for  the  Gospel.  In  many 
parts  of  the  globe  the  critical  nature  of  the  situation 
has  been  emphasized.  Opportunities,  we  have  been 
told,  are  passing — will  within  five  years  or  ten  years 
have  passed — never  to  return.  In  the  Far  East,  where 
great  nations  are  awaking  and  coming  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  powers,  it  is  now  or  never  for  the  Gospel. 
It  is  now  or  never  in  Africa,  where  every  Moslem  is  a 
missionary  and  where  Islam  is  advancing  with  giant 
strides.  Missions  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  new 
movements  in  India  and  China,  but  what  a  frightful 
prospect  it  would  open  up  if  the  vast  populations  of 
Asia  should  master  the  resources  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion and  be  left  with  none  but  pagan  impulses  to  direct 

^  Preached  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
April,  191 1. 

(294) 


PROPITIATION  295 

them.  The  urgency  of  the  need  and  the  vastness  of 
the  opportunity  have  ahke  been  pressed  on  the  Church, 
and  we  have  not  wanted  those  who  in  view  of  both 
have  talked  to  us  of  missions  as  a  "  business  proposi- 
tion," and  have  told  us  how,  as  men  of  business,  we 
must  address  ourselves  to  the  organizing  and  financing 
of  the  business  if  it  is  to  be  made  a  business  success. 
And  what  is  the  result  of  this  unexampled  activity  in 
pleading  the  mission  cause  ?  So  far  as  I  can  see,  it  is 
neither  here  nor  there.  An  immense  proportion  of  the 
people  in  our  churches  care  little  about  the  matter. 
There  is  no  sensible  increase  either  of  contributions  or 
of  gifted  men.  There  are  no  signs  of  expansion,  elas- 
ticity, or  fresh  ardour. 

Now  why  should  this  be  ?  Some  appeals,  I  can 
hardly  doubt,  are  wrecked  on  the  sober,  not  to  say  the 
sceptical  common  sense  of  those  who  hear  them.  Many 
people  cannot  help  distrusting  the  diagnoses  of  vast 
situations  like  those  presented  in  India  and  China. 
They  do  not  believe  that  anybody  can  read  them  with 
authority,  and  when  they  are  told  of  the  consequences 
that  will  inevitably  follow  if  something  is  not  done 
within  five  years  or  ten  years,  they  are  not  much  im- 
pressed. They  have  a  latent  consciousness  that  all 
human  affairs  are  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  that  though 
He  honours  us  to  be  His  fellow-workers,  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  the  vast  movement  depends,  in  the  way 
implied  in  such  appeals,  upon  us.  Many  people  also 
have  something  in  their  minds  which  reacts  against 
the  idea  that  we  can  plan,  organize,  and  carry  out  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  They  do  not  really 
believe  that  the  thing  is  to  be  done  that  way.  They 
get  tired  of  military  metaphors — about  sending  rein- 


296  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

forcements  here  and  occupying  strategic  points  there. 
They  cannot  help  remembering  words  of  Jesus  about 
the  kingdom  of  God — words  in  which  it  is  compared 
to  a  seed  growing  secretly,  or  to  leaven  hid  in  three 
measures  of  meal  till  the  whole  is  leavened — and  they 
cannot  get  over  the  feeling  that  these  words  must 
apply  (in  a  way  which  many  appeals  overlook)  to  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  even  in  India  and  China. 
Further,  there  is  a  sense  of  proportion  in  the  human 
mind  which  is  apt  to  protest  when  even  a  great  cause 
is  put  out  of  focus.  There  are  many  people  in  our 
churches  whose  minds  and  hands  are  pretty  full.  They 
are  in  a  situation  which  taxes  all  their  faculties.  Their 
families,  their  business,  their  rents  and  rates,  their 
duties  religious  and  political  to  the  society  in  which 
they  live,  are  real,  insistent,  and  absorbing;  and  while 
they  would  not  disclaim  responsibility  for  foreign  mis- 
sions, they  are  impatient  when  their  other  responsi- 
bilities seem  to  be  minimized  in  pleading  the  mission 
cause.  They  can  make  missions  to  the  heathen  a  real 
but  not  a  preponderating  care.  To  ask  them  to  make 
missions  their  primary  concern  seems  to  them  almost 
as  unreal  as  to  ask  them  to  learn  Hindustani  or 
Chinese.  It  is  impossible,  not  because  they  care  no- 
thing for  the  Chinese  or  the  Hindus,  but  because  the 
bulk  of  their  intellectual  and  moral  energies  is  pre- 
engaged,  and  pre-engaged  in  what  they  consider  im- 
perative and  entirely  right  ways. 

I  have  said  these  things,  which  to  some  may  appear 
chilling  or  out  of  place,  only  because  I  do  not  wish 
to  be  thought  oblivious  of  them.  But  when  all  such 
allowances  have  been  made,  there  ought  to  be  more 
missionary  interest  in  our  churches  than  is  actually 


PROPITIATION  297 

found,  and  the  fault  lies  in  the  last  resort  not  in  the 
nature  of  the  appeals  which  are  made  for  missions,  but 
in  the  minds  to  which  they  are  addressed.  *'  Some 
people,"  I  once  heard  a  distinguished  missionary  say, 
''  do  not  believe  in  missions.  They  have  no  right  to 
believe  in  missions:  they  do  not  believe  in  Christ." 
This  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  It  is  not  inter- 
est in  missions  that  we  want  in  our  churches  at  this 
moment,  but  interest  in  the  Gospel.  Apart  from  a  new 
interest  in  the  Gospel,  a  revival  of  evangelical  faith 
in  Christ  as  the  Redeemer,  I  believe  we  shall  look  in 
vain  for  a  response  to  missionary  appeals.  But  there  is 
something  in  the  Gospel  itself,  something  especially  in 
that  presentation  of  it  which  we  have  in  the  text,  which 
immediately  creates  missionary  interest,  because  it  has 
no  proper  correlative  but  the  universe.  Again  and 
again  we  have  it  echoed  in  St.  John.  "Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.'' 
"Thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by 
Thy  blood,  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people 
and  nation''  "He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and 
not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world."  It  is 
as  though  one  might  conceive  Christ  in  some  character 
or  aspect  which  limited  His  significance,  but  once  He  is 
seen  in  the  character  of  a  propitiation,  as  a  lamb  bear- 
ing and  bearing  away  sin,  all  limitations  are  removed. 
The  only  correlative  of  such  a  Christ  is  the  whole 
world,  and  nothing  gives  us  such  a  wonderful  impres- 
sion of  what  Christ  was  to  His  immediate  followers  as 
that  they  actually  saw  in  Him  as  He  died  upon  the 
cross  a  goodness  that  outweighed  not  only  their  sin 
but  all  sin,  and  could  say  God  was  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  to  Himself.     This  is  the  consciousness 


298  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

out  of  which  the  missionary  impulse  springs.  This 
was  what  made  Paul  cry,  "  I  am  debtor  both  to  the 
Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  the 
unwise  ".  If  there  is  Httle  missionary  interest  in  the 
churches,  depend  upon  it,  the  reason  is  that  there  is 
little  evangelic  interest.  The  wonder  of  that  redeem- 
ing revelation  that  made  the  first  disciples  Apostles 
has  faded  away,  and  we  must  revive  it  by  standing 
where  the  Apostles  stood,  and  seeing  Christ  in  the 
awful  and  glorious  light  in  which  they  saw  Him,  if  new 
life  is  to  enter  into  missionary  work. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  aversion  to  the  ideas  of 
sin  and  of  propitiation.  In  a  sense,  they  stand  and  fall 
together.  If  there  is  no  sin,  there  can  be  no  propitia- 
tion. The  one  is  just  as  real  as  the  other.  I  am  not 
going  to  speak  to  those  who  question  the  reality  of  sin 
— who  explain  and  extenuate  what  was  once  so-called, 
who  resolve  it  into  the  inevitable  result  of  heredity 
and  environment,  for  whom  individual  is  lost  in  cor- 
porate responsibility,  and  who  have  never  had  the  ex- 
perience of  a  living  soul  standing  with  a  bad  conscience 
in  the  presence  of  the  living  God.  The  whole  Gospel 
is  meant  for  sinners — not  for  men  as  such,  but  for  sin- 
ful men  :  an  elementary  truth  too  often  overlooked. 
It  is  meant  for  people  to  whom  the  bad  conscience  is  a 
responsibility  they  cannot  escape,  a  chain  they  cannot 
break,  a  doom — and  what  doom  could  be  heavier — 
never  to  be  anything  else  than  what  they  are.  It  is 
to  men  who  in  one  degree  or  other  know  what  sin  is, 
that  the  Gospel  is  addressed.  It  is  to  them  Christ  comes 
from  God,  and  He  comes  in  the  character  of  a  Redeemer. 
He  does  not  regard  sin  nor  treat  it  as  unreal.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  more  real  to  Him  than  it  is  to  us.     He 


PROPITIATION  299 

enters  more  deeply  than  we  can  into  all  it  means  both 
for  us  and  for  God — He,  Jesus  Christ  the  Righteous. 
And  because  He  does  so,  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins. 

When  we  think  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  there  are 
only  three  things  we  can  say.  One  is,  that  it  is  im- 
possible. Things  are  what  they  are,  and  the  con- 
sequences of  them  will  be  what  they  will  be  :  not  even 
God  can  reverse  them.  As  the  late  Mr.  Rathbone 
Greg  put  it,  God  is  the  only  being  who  cannot  for- 
give. A  man  who  is  more  or  less  indifferent  to  moral 
interests  may  be  indulgent  to  his  neighbour  who  is  no 
better  than  himself;  but  how  can  indulgence  be  looked 
for  from  One  who  is  the  inflexible  guardian  of  right  ? 
I  am  not  going  to  argue  against  this.  I  believe  it 
contains  a  recognition  of  the  vital  truth  that  God  never 
condones  sin.  He  never  treats  it  as  anything  less  or 
anything  else  than  it  is.  If  there  should  turn  out, 
after  all,  to  be  such  a  thing  as  a  Divine  forgiveness  of 
sins,  we  may  be  sure  it  will  be  such  a  forgiveness  as 
carries  the  Divine  condemnation  and  destruction  of  sin 
in  the  heart  of  it. 

Another  thing  that  may  be  said  is,  that  forgiveness 
can  be  taken  for  granted.  Of  course  God  forgives. 
That  is  what  God  is  for.  His  name  was  proclaimed  to 
Moses,  **The  Lord,  a  God  merciful  and  gracious,  long 
suffering  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  forgiv- 
ing iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin."  We  can  all 
presume  upon  that.  I  am  not  going  to  argue  against 
this  either.  I  believe  it  is  an  imperfect  and  in  the 
last  resort  an  impious  way  of  recognizing  the  truth 
that  salvation  is  of  the  Lord.  "'Tis  from  the  mercy  of 
our  God  that  all  our  hopes  begin,"  and  they  do  begin. 


300  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

The  initiative  in  salvation  must  lie  wuth  God,  and  He 
actually  takes  the  initiative.  We  can  and  do  depend 
upon  that.  But  we  must  not  presume  upon  it.  Often 
we  are  referred  to  the  Old  Testament  for  illustrations 
of  the  experience  of  forgiveness  which  are  not  (it  is 
said)  conditioned  by  anything  in  the  nature  of  pro- 
pitiation, yet  for  depth  and  height  and  gladness  have 
never  been  surpassed.  It  may  not  be  possible  for  us 
to  tell  through  what  experiences  God  mediated  to 
psalmists  and  prophets  in  ancient  times  the  assurance 
of  His  pardoning  love  to  Israel,  but  one  thing  is  certain  : 
none  of  them  ever  took  it  for  granted.  To  all  of  them 
it  came  as  the  wonder  of  wonders,  the  unsurpassable, 
all  but  incredible,  revelation  of  the  goodness  of  God. 
Listen  to  Moses  :  "Oh,  this  people  have  sinned  a  great 
sin  and  have  made  them  gods  of  gold  ;  yet  now,  if 
thou  wilt  forgive  their  sin — and  if  not,  blot  me,  I 
pray  thee,  out  of  Thy  book  which  Thou  hast  written." 
Is  that  the  voice  of  a  man  who  thinks  that  of  course 
God  must  forgive  ?  Or  listen  to  the  great  prophet  of 
the  exile.  He  has  caught  the  voice  of  God,  **  I  have 
blotted  out,  as  a  thick  cloud,  thy  transgressions,  and 
as  a  cloud  thy  sins  ;  return  unto  Me,  for  I  have  re- 
deemed thee  "  ;  and  how  does  he  respond  ?  *'  Sing,  O 
ye  heavens,  for  the  Lord  hath  done  it ;  shout,  ye  lower 
parts  of  the  earth  ;  break  forth  into  singing,  3^e  moun- 
tains, O  forest,  and  every  tree  therein  ;  for  the  Lord 
hath  redeemed  Jacob,  and  glorified  Himself  in  Israel." 
I  ask  again,  is  that  the  voice  of  a  man  who  thinks  for- 
giveness may  be  assumed  ?  Take  one  example  more, 
from  Micah.  "  Who  is  a  god  like  unto  Thee,  that 
pardoneth  iniquity  and  passeth  by  the  transgression 
of  the  remnant  of  his  heritage  ?  "     Does  he  take  for- 


PROPITIATION  301 

giveness  for  granted,  or  does  not  the  amazing  revela- 
tion and  experience  of  it  lift  his  God  above  all  gods  ? 
No  !  whatever  the  way  in  w^hich  their  experience  of 
forgiveness  came  to  Old  Testament  men,  it  came  as  a 
marvel  in  w^hich  God  was  incomparably  revealed,  as 
an  inspiration  to  passionate  praise,  not  as  a  common- 
place which  called  for  no  comment. 

We  might  say  antecedently  to  experience  either  of 
these  things — forgiveness  is  impossible,  or  forgiveness 
may  be  taken  for  granted — and  we  have  allowed  for 
the  truth  and  falsehood  of  both  ;  but  w^hat  the  New 
Testament  says  is  that  God  Himself  loved  us,  and  sent 
His  Son  a  propitiation  for  sins,  and  that  in  Him  we 
have  our  redemption,  through  His  blood,  even  the  for- 
giveness of  our  trespasses,  according  to  the  riches  of 
His  grace.  There  is  something  in  this  which  we  could 
never  have  anticipated.  Forgiveness  is  not  impossible, 
nor  is  it  a  matter  of  course  ;  it  is  a  miracle.  As  the 
New  Testament  holds  it  out  to  sinful  men,  it  is  the 
supreme  achievement  of  God  in  Christ ;  His  costliest. 
His  unspeakable  gift.  To  receive  it  is  an  experience  as 
wonderful  in  its  kind  as  to  achieve  it  or  to  bestow  it ; 
there  is  a  passion  in  being  pardoned  corresponding  to 
the  passion  of  Jesus  when  He  gave  His  life  a  ransom 
for  men.  This  is  what  is  fundamental  in  the  Christian 
religion,  and  it  is  this  we  must  recover  in  it  if  we 
would  revive  its  original  expansive  power. 

Many  people  speak  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  who 
have  no  idea  of  what  forgiveness  means  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  no  idea,  either,  of  the  ways  in  which 
the  reality  of  sin  is  demonstrated  there.  The  one  con- 
dition of  forgiveness  which  they  understand  is  repent- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  sinner — as  though  the  reality 


302  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

of  sin  were  exhausted  in  what  it  is  to  him.  But  its 
reality  is  not  exhausted  so,  even  if  we  assume,  what  is 
never  the  case,  that  the  repentance  is  adequate  to  the 
j  offence.  Sin  is  real  in  the  universe,  beyond  the  sinner's 
^  control.  It  is  real  to  God ;  and  before  it  can  be  for- 
:  given  by  Him — or  rather  in  the  very  act  in  which  it  is 
forgiven,  as  part  of  the  very  process  of  forgiving — His 
sense  of  its  reality  must  be  declared.  This  is  what  is 
done  in  the  propitiation,  and  it  is  in  proportion  as  we 
appreciate  this  that  the  Divine  forgiveness  appears  an 
unspeakable  gift.  I  believe  the  reason  why  we  some- 
•times  have  difficulty  with  this  connexion  of  ideas  is 
f  that  we  are  too  familiar  with  forgiving  ourselves,  and 
Ntoo  apt  to  assume  that  this  is  the  same  as  being  for- 
given. Often  in  hearing  or  reading  arguments  against 
propitiation — especially  those  based  on  human  ana- 
logies— I  have  wondered  whether  those  who  used 
them  had  ever  had  the  experience  of  being  truly  for- 
given for  a  real  wrong  by  a  fellow  creature.  Take  the 
case  of  that  relation  in  which  human  love  is  most  in- 
tense, and  at  the  same  time  most  ethical — most  remote 
from  the  elemental  instinct  with  which  even  the  dumb 
creatures  cling  to  their  young — the  relation  of  husband 
and  wife.  A  man  may  sin  in  this  relation — I  do  not 
mean  at  all  in  the  gross  way  of  violating  his  marriage 
vow — but  in  a  way  that  wounds  his  wife's  love.  He 
may  do  something  by  which  he  falls  in  her  opinion, 
compels  her  to  be  ashamed  of  him  instead  of  proud  of 
him ;  he  may  forfeit  the  confidence  she  once  had  in 
him,  and  in  proportion  to  the  fineness  and  nobility  of 
her  nature  hurt  her  more  than  he  can  comprehend. 
And  what  then  ?  Possibly  what  happens  in  such  a 
case  is  that  there  is  no  reconciliation,  but  that  after  a 


PROPITIATION  303 

while  the  offender  begins  to  forgive  himself.  He  has 
been  mortified,  ashamed,  and  humiliated  as  well  as  his 
wife,  and  it  is  mainly  of  himself  that  he  thinks.  He 
sees  no  more  that  is  to  be  made  by  indulging  such 
feelings  longer.  He  assumes  that  his  wife  as  a  reason- 
able being  will  at  last  let  bygones  be  bygones ;  and  in 
consideration  of  the  fact  that  he  admits  he  has  behaved 
badly,  he  expects  her  to  be  willing  to  begin  again,  and 
to  go  on  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  This  is  what 
often  takes  place  in  human  relations,  and  unhappily  it 
is  often  the  only  analogy  which  experience  supplies 
for  interpreting  our  relation  to  God.  But  sometimes 
what  takes  place  is  quite  different,  far  more  wonderful, 
far  more  Divine.  There  is  such  an  experience  as  a 
real  reconciliation,  in  which  the  offender  does  not  for- 
give himself  but  is  forgiven.  And  what  is  the  peculi- 
arity of  this  experience,  by  which  it  is  differentiated 
from  the  other?  It  is  this:  the  centre  of  moral  in-  ir 
terest  is  transferred  at  once  from  the  offender  to  the  } 
offended,^  The  centre  of  the  passion  by  which  sin  is 
overcome  is  seen  to  be  not  in  the  sinner,  however 
deep  and  pure  his  repentance  may  be,  but  in  the 
purer  and  diviner  spirit  which  has  borne  his  sin  and 
is  forgiving  it.  If  this  is  a  true  analogy,  can  anyone 
think  forgiveness  is  easy,  a  thing  that  needs  no  ex- 
planation, and  to  which  the  idea  of  propitiation  is 
irrelevant  or  even  abhorrent  ?  I  can  believe  that  it  is 
possible  for  love  to  forgive  anything — for  the  love  of  a 
wife  to  pardon  things  in  her  husband  that  broke  her 
pride,  her  hope,  and  her  trust  in  him  ;  but  I  can  believe 
also,  or  rather  I  cannot  but  believe,  that  just  in  pro- 
portion to  the  purity  and  divineness  of  her  nature, 
must  that  forgiveness  come  out  of  an  agony  in  which 


304  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

it  would  not  be  amazing  if  she  suddenly  fell  down 
if.  dead.  There  is  all  this  difference  between  forgiving 
1/  oneself,  which  is  so  easy,  so  common,  and  so  degrading ; 
ji  and  being  forgiven  by  a  love  which  has  borne  our 
I'  sins,  which  is  so  tragic,  so  subduing,  so  regenerating. 
Real  forgiveness,  forgiveness  by  another  whom  we 
have  wronged,  and  in  whom  there  is  a  love,  which 
forgiveness  reveals,  able  at  once  to  bear  the  wrong 
and  to  inspire  the  penitence  through  which  we  can 
rise  above  it,  is  always  tragic ;  and  it  is  tragic  on  both 
sides — to  him  who  has  borne  the  sin  which  he  for- 
gives, and  to  him  who  stoops  with  a  penitent  heart 
to  be  forgiven.  What  the  propitiation  stands  for  is 
the  divine  side  of  this  tragedy.  It  is  tragic  for  God 
to  forgive — a  solemn  and  awful  experience,  if  we  may 
put  it  so,  for  Him ;  just  as  to  be  forgiven  is  tragic — a 
solemn  and  awful  experience  for  us.  This  is  the  truth 
— and  of  its  truth  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I  have 
of  my  own  existence — which  underlies  all  the  New 
Testament  teaching  about  propitiation.  To  evade  it, 
or  to  let  it  fall  into  the  background,  is  not  to  drop  a 
Jewish  misconception  which  the  Christian  spirit  has 
outgrown.  It  is  to  pluck  the  heart  out  of  the  Christian 
religion.  It  is  to  stifle  praise  in  the  birth,  and  cut 
devotion  at  the  root. 

The  great  distinction  between  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New,  in  what  they  reveal  about  forgiveness, 
lies  just  here  :  the  New  Testament  has  a  perception, 
which  was  as  yet  impossible  to  the  Old,  of  the  cost  at 
which  forgiveness  comes  to  men.  The  Old  Testament 
5  felt  that  it  was  wonderful,  but  the  New  Testament  can 
L  say  that  it  is  as  wonderful  as  the  Passion  of  Jesus. 
He  di^edJhjlour  sins.     In  Him  we  haYe^our^redemgUou 


PROPITIATION  305 

through^  His  blood     We  are  justified  freely  by  God's    fi 
*grace— the  Old  Testament  knew  that ;  but  in  the  New  fl 
Testament  they  can  add,  through  the  redemption  that  \ 
is  in  Christ  Jesus,  whom  God  set  forth  as  a  propitia-    / 
tion,  through  faith,  in  His  blood.     That  is  the  ultimate 
difference  of  the  dispensations,  the  last  and    highest 
stage  of  revelation  in  the  new.     But  on  this  ultimate 
difference  others  are  dependent,  and  among  these  the 
conspicuous  difference  with  which  we  are  concerned 
to-day,  that  while  the  Old  Testament  religion  was  that 
of  a  nation,  the  New  Testament  religion  is  destined 
for   the  human  race.     Get  to  the  heart  of  it  and  its 
universal  scope  cannot  be  missed.     The  propitiation 
is  so  absolute,  so  divine,  that  it  draws  everything  within 
its  range.     If  we  feel  what  it  is,  we  feel  that  it  is  not 
for  our  sins  only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world. 

The  motives  to  mission  work — in  other  words,  to 
preaching  the  Gospel — can  never  be  found  in  a  com- 
mand as  such.  We  read  the  command  of  Jesus  in  the 
Gospel,  "  Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature,"  and  we  know  by  experience  that  for 
multitudes  it  does  not  constitute  a  motive  at  all.  They 
are  quite  well  aware  of  it,  but  they  quite  easily  ignore 
it.  It  only  acts  as  a  motive  in  those  who  have  them- 
selves been  won  by  Christ,  who  realize  what  an  un- 
speakable gift  God  has  given  us  in  His  Son,  and  who 
feel  spontaneously  the  impulse  to  impart  it.  There 
may  be  degrees  in  this  realization,  but  it  is  most  keen 
and  vital — it  operates  most  potently  as  a  motive  for 
preaching  the  Gospel — in  those  who  have  apprehended 
Christ  in  His  character  as  a  propitiation.  In  compari- 
son with  the  Christianity  which  has  this  grasp  on  the 
heart  of  the  New  Testament  revelation  every  other  is 

20 


3o6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

anaemic  ;  it  is  the  passion  of  Jesus  the  Redeemer  which 
alone  evokes  a  responsive  passion  in  sinful  hearts.  It 
is  this  which  opens  men's  mouths  in  testimony  meet- 
ings ;  it  is  this  which  raises  up  evangehsts ;  it  is  this 
and  nothing  else  which  will  send  them  for  the  name  of 
Jesus  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  And  if  even 
the  command  of  Jesus,  simply  as  a  command,  is  ineffec- 
tive, much  more  so  are  what  may  be  called  the  second- 
ary motives  to  missions.  Our  science,  our  civilization, 
our  administration  of  justice,  our  industry — all  these 
may  be  valuable  enough,  and  it  might  be  very  advan- 
tageous to  introduce  them  into  countries  we  could 
name ;  but  the  Christian  Church  does  not  exist  to  be 
the  agent  or  the  forerunner  of  external  fashions  of  life 
which  it  has  seen  come  into  being  and  which  it  will 
probably  see  pass  away.  It  lives  for  and  by  the  things 
which  are  spiritual  and  eternal.  In  Jesus  Christ  the 
righteous,  the  propitiation  for  sins,  it  is  the  possessor 
of  something  inexpressibly  good — something  so  good, 
and  for  which  it  feels  so  deeply  indebted  and  so  bound- 
lessly grateful  to  God — that  it  cannot  keep  silence  nor 
withhold  it  from  any  man.  There  are  Gospels  with 
which  we  would  not  go  very  far.  They  are  so  poor 
that  we  should  hardly  like  to  expose  them  to  anyone, 
let  alone  to  all  the  world.  But  if  Christ  the  propitia- 
tion has  been  revealed  to  us  as  the  power  of  God  to 
save,  then  we  have  something  in  our  hearts  that  lifts 
us  above  the  need  of  commands  and  makes  secondary 
motives  unreal.  The  only  motives  worth  considering 
in  this  region  are  the  irresistible  motives.  We  get 
nothing  until  we  get  men  who  say,  "We  cannot  but 
speak.  Necessity  is  laid  upon  us.  We  are  debtors. 
Whether  we  be  beside    ourselves,    it  is   to  God  ;  or 


PROPITIATIOxN  307 

whether  we  be  sober,  it  is  for  your  cause  ;  for  the  love 
of  Christ  constraineth  us.  Having  therefore  obtained 
help  of  God  I  continue  unto  this  day,  witnessing  both 
to  small  and  great."  I  repeat,  what  we  want  is  not 
missionaries,  in  the  narrower  sense,  but  evangelists — 
not  a  new  interest  in  the  non-Christian  world,  but  a 
new  interest  in  the  Gospel — not  men  who  want  to 
preach  to  the  heathen,  but  men  who  cannot  but  preach 
where  they  are.  That  is  the  stock  from  which  alone 
the  missionary  force  can  be  recruited — the  men  and 
women  in  whom  all  emotions  and  motives  are  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  sense  of  what  they  owe  to  the  Re- 
deemer. Let  us  pray  and  preach  for  the  multiplication 
of  such  men,  if  we  would  help  the  mission  cause. 
Redeemed  and  devoted  lives  will  solve  all  our  prob- 
lems, and  nothing  less  will  touch  them.  The  appeals 
which  have  been  made  so  long  in  vain  will  not  be 
vain  when  the  old  doxology  breaks  again  irresistibly 
and  spontaneously  from  the  Church's  lips — Unto  Him 
that  loveth  us,  and  loosed  us  from  our  sins  by  His 
blood,  be  the  glory  and  the  dominion  for  ever  and  ever. 
That  is  the  voice  of  those  who  know  instinctively  that 
Christ  is  the  heir  of  the  world.  It  is  of  Him  and  of 
His  Church  that  they  think  when  they  sing  that  ancient 
Psalm  of  the  kingdom  and  its  King.  ''There  shall  be 
an  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the 
mountains ;  the  fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon  : 
and  they  of  the  city  shall  flourish  like  grass  of  the 
earth.  His  name  shall  endure  for  ever;  His  name 
shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun  :  and  men  shall 
be  blessed  in  Him;  all  nations  shall  call  Him  blessed." 
Amen. 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS. 

"  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  Me  ;  for  I 
am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  My  burden  is  light." — Matthew 
XI.  28-30. 

There  is  a  benediction  in  the  very  sound  of  these 
words,  of  which  few  that  have  heard  them  are  quite 
unconscious,  and  it  becomes  the  more  striking  when 
we  observe  the  setting  in  which  they  are  placed  by 
the  evangehst.  Up  to  the  preceding  chapter,  the 
story  of  Jesus'  Hfe  as  a  teacher  and  healer  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  unbroken  success ;  the  multitudes 
thronged  around  Him,  and  the  work  so  grew  upon 
His  hands  that  He  was  obliged  to  share  it  with  the 
Twelve,  and  to  send  them  out  to  preach  and  heal  in 
His  name.  But  with  the  eleventh  chapter  a  turning 
point  is  reached,  and  now  almost  every  incident  in 
the  life  of  Jesus,  over  a  considerable  period,  might 
be  headed  Offence.  In  the  opening  of  the  chapter  His 
forerunner  John  is  presented  to  us  as  in  doubt  about 
His  Messiahship.  "Art  thou  He  that  should  come, 
or  are  we  to  look  for  another?"  Then  we  see  Jesus 
comparing  His  contemporaries — the  generation  which 
would  not  listen  either  to  Himself  or  His  forerunner 
— to  wilful  children,  who  would  not  play  at  any  kind 
of  game  their  companions  proposed ;  neither  a  wed- 

(308) 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  309 

ding  nor  a  funeral  would  please  them ;  they  would 
not  be  in  earnest  with  God  whether  He  came  in  the 
austerity  of  the  Baptist  or  the  geniahty  of  the  Son  of 
Man.  In  what  immediately  follows  we  hear  Him  pro- 
nounce woes  on  the  cities  which  had  seen  all  His 
mighty  works  and  yet  had  not  repented,  and  face  the 
disconcerting  fact  that  all  the  better  classes,  as  we 
should  .say  now,  were  against  Him.  The  wise  and 
prudent  could  see  nothing  in  His  message.  Yet 
while  thus  repelled  on  every  hand  Jesus  is  not  shaken 
inwardly.  His  trust  in  the  Father  and  in  His  guidance 
remains :  **  Even  so  Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in 
Thy  sight ".  His  confidence  that  He  is  empowered  for 
His  work,  and  can  do  for  men  all  that  they  need  to 
have  done,  remains:  **A11  things  have  been  delivered 
unto  Me  by  My  Father  ...  no  man  knoweth  the 
Father  save  the  Son,  and  He  to  whomsoever  the  Son 
willeth  to  reveal  Him  ".  And  above  all.  His  love  re- 
mains. It  is  against  this  background  of  offence  and 
disappointment  that  He  stretches  out  His  hands  again 
and  cries :  '*  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

I.  The  people  addressed  were  in  the  first  instance 
those  whose  religion  had  become  a  burden  to  them. 
It  is  remarkable,  indeed,  that  this  is  one  of  the  chief 
connexions  in  which  the  terms  "burden  "  and  "^^oke" 
are  employed  in  the  New  Testament.  "  They  bind 
heavy  burdens  and  grievous  to  be  borne  upon  men's 
shoulders  "  :  so  said  Jesus  of  the  rehgious  teachers  of 
His  day.  "Ye  are  putting  a  yoke  on  the  neck  of  the 
disciples  which  neither  we  nor  our  fathers  were  able 
to  bear  "  :  so  said  Peter  at  a  later  day  to  their  succes- 
sors in  the  Christian  Church.     Religion  had  become 


3IO  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

for  multitudes  an  affair  of  endless  commandments 
and  prohibitions  ;  its  statutes — and  it  was  all  statutes — 
were  numbered  by  hundreds  ;  they  were  to  be  obeyed 
because  there  they  were,  the  traditions  of  the  elders. 
As  Jesus  looked  round  Him,  He  saw  men  crushed, 
bent  and  tottering  under  this  traditional  and  statutory 
religion — weary  with  their  efforts  to  do  justice  to  it, 
yet  never  getting  one  step  nearer  God,  nor  finding 
rest  and  liberty  within.  It  is  to  such  He  cries,  "Come 
unto  Me.  I  have  the  secret  of  what  you  are  looking 
for.  I  can  initiate  you  into  the  true  religion,  the 
obedience  which  is  not  imposed  but  inspired ;  and 
there  you  will  find  rest  for  your  souls." 

Are  there  not  still  those  whose  burden  is  that  of  a 
degenerate  religion  ?  True  religion,  the  life  of  God  in 
the  soul  of  man,  is  not  a  burden,  but  the  very  reverse. 
It  is  not  something  that  we  carry  ;  it  is  properly  some- 
thing which  sustains  us.  But  how  many  people  there 
are  whose  religion  is  their  chief  trouble.  Carlyle 
speaks  mockingly  of  governments  for  which  religion 
only  exists  in  the  shape  of  the  religious  question  or  the 
religious  difficulty.  But  it  is  not  only  governments 
of  which  we  may  say  this.  There  are  plenty  of  men 
and  women  who  get  nothing  out  of  their  religion ; 
it  troubles,  perplexes,  oppresses  them  ;  it  is  something 
they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with.  And  the  reason 
of  this  is  always  the  same.  Human  traditions  have 
gathered  round  the  religion  and  become  identified  with 
it :  it  means  a  great  mass  of  things  that  we  are  to  be- 
lieve, because  others  have  believed  them,  or  that  we 
are  to  continue  to  do  because  others  have  done  them. 
But  times  change,  and  minds  change,  and  these  tradi- 
tions become  an  ever  more  intolerable  burden.     We 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  311 

do  not  know  how  to  adjust  the  traditional  beliefs  to 
other  things  which  we  know  to  be  true.  We  cannot 
feel  that  there  is  anything  morally  effective  in  the  tra- 
ditional modes  of  behaviour — an};  thing  to  which  con- 
science consents  spontaneously,  and  which  tells  upon 
the  world  as  real  goodness  would.  The  whole  thing 
becomes  a  burden  and  a  perplexity — a  mass  of  questions 
we  do  not  know  how  to  answer,  of  conventional  ways 
of  being  good  and  of  doing  good  from  which  we  cannot 
help  fearing  that  the  virtue  has  departed.  We  are 
weakened,  depressed,  overborne  by  our  religion,  not 
uplifted  and  inspired.  What  are  we  to  say  to  souls 
in  such  a  case  ?  Jesus  says,  "  Come  unto  me  ".  What 
you  need  is  not  religion — in  the  shape  that  time  and 
human  traditions  have  given  to  it — but  Christ.  It  is  not 
other  people's  pieties,  or  creeds,  or  sacred  customs, 
but  Christ.  God  does  not  wish  us  to  have  the  religion 
of  our  ancestors,  but  to  have  religion  of  our  own,  and 
such  religion  is  kindled  in  our  souls  when  we  drop  re- 
ligion as  it  is  imposed  by  men,  and  come  to  Him.  This 
is  no  doctrine  of  mere  rebellion  or  religious  anarchy ; 
there  is  no  fear  of  rebellion  or  anarchy  when  we  put 
on  the  yoke  of  Jesus. 

But  how  do  we  come  to  Jesus  ?  There  is  no  general 
answer  to  this  question ;  the  peculiarity  and  the 
beauty  of  coming  to  a  person  is  that  every  one  may 
do  it  in  a  way  of  his  own.  It  is  not  like  learning  a 
catechism,  or  mastering  a  science,  where  there  is  the 
same  routine  for  every  one  ;  it  is  like  forming  a  friend- 
ship, or  falling  in  love.  Every  life  crosses  that  of  Jesus 
at  its  own  angle,  and  in  all  true  religion  there  is  an 
original  experience,  something  which  is  our  very  own. 
No  one  can  tell  how  slight  it  may  be  to  begin  with. 


312  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

Even  in  human  relations  we  may  owe  all  the  happi- 
ness of  which  we  are  capable,  or  all  the  misery — all 
the  best  we  can  rise  to,  or  all  the  worst  to  which  we 
can  sink — to  what  seem  very  insignificant  things  ;  to 
a  look,  an  attitude,  a  gesture,  the  tone  of  a  voice,  a 
word  so  trifling  that  no  one  was  aware  of  it  but  our- 
selves. There  is  the  same  incalculable  incommensur- 
able element  in  all  real  contact  of  the  soul  with  Jesus. 
The  one  certainty  in  every  case  is  that  we  come  to 
Jesus  in  some  kind  of  obedience,  in  an  act  rather  than 
a  belief,  or  in  a  belief  which  has  no  adequate  expres- 
sion except  in  act.  Take  My  yoke  uponyott.  No  intel- 
lectual difficulties  are  ever  supposed  in  the  Gospel,  for 
there  are  no  intellectual  requirements.  But  there  is 
always  something  to  do^  or  to  beai\  What  it  is,  we 
must  find  out  for  ourselves  in  Jesus'  presence ;  but  as 
we  do  it,  the  true  religion  will  rise  up  within  us, 
assured,  emancipating,  full  of  a  deep  peace  and  joy. 
Though  the  idea  of  a  yoke  is  irksome,  Jesus  says,  "  My 
yoke  is  easy  ".  This  is  not  because  His  standard  is 
lower  than  that  of  conventional  religion  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, there  is  none  so  high.  But  in  His  company  it 
is  the  heights  which  attract.  "My  feet  always  move 
quicker  of  themselves  when  I  catch  sight  of  the  hills." 
As  he  breathes  His  own  spirit  into  us,  obedience  is 
not  a  crushing  burden  that  we  bear ;  it  is  the  uprising 
in  us  of  gratitude  and  devotion  in  which  our  souls 
find  rest. 

2.  If  a  degenerate  religion  is  the  burden  of  some, 
that  of  others  is  that  they  have  no  religion  at  all. 
Their  life  is  empty  and  futile  ;  the  one  word  of  Scrip- 
ture they  thoroughly  understand  is  "  Vanity  of  vanities, 
all  is  vanity  ".    Life  is  a  burden  to  them  because  there 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  .        313 

is  nothing  in  it.  It  has  no  chief  end,  no  satisfying 
result,  no  fruit  that  abides.  Day  by  day  it  goes  on, 
and  year  by  year,  always  heavier  and  heavier  as  its 
emptiness  is  realized.  Hov^  many  people  there  are 
who  are  burdened  by  this  vain  life  which  has  no  inner 
law,  no  necessity  and  no  freedom  of  its  own.  How 
many  there  are  who  with  a  sense  of  slavery  do  what 
other  people  do,  and  sometimes  wish  they  had  never 
been  born.  Perhaps  they  are  recruited  in  part  from 
those  who  have  rebelled  against  conventional  religion, 
but  have  not  got  past  the  stage  of  mere  rebellion.  But 
more  commonly  they  represent  what  is  another  great 
tradition  in  human  life — the  tradition  of  self-will. 
Promising  as  it  seems  at  first,  all  experience  goes  to 
show  that  there  is  nothing  so  fatiguing  and  oppressive. 
It  never  gives  rest  to  the  soul. 

Me  this  unchartered  freedom  tires  ; 

I  feel  the  weight  of  chance  desires  : 

My  hopes  no  more  must  change  their  name  : 

I  long  for  a  repose  that  ever  is  the  same. 

Or  in  a  wilder  strain  : — 

He  made  a  feast,  drank  fierce  and  fast, 
And  crowned  his  hair  with  flowers  ; 
No  easier  nor  no  quicker  passed 
The  impracticable  hours. 

Has  Jesus  anything  to  say  to  those  who  are  sighing 
under  this  burden  ?  Yes,  even  to  those  who  have 
lived  this  empty,  disappointing  life,  and  who  are 
crushed  beneath  its  futility,  He  cries,  **Come  unto  me." 
Empty  and  worthless  as  it  is,  this  life  may  still  be 
redeemed  ;  nay,  it  may  be  filled  unto  all  the  fullness  of 
God.  ''Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  Me". 
Do   one  single    thing    which    Jesus   commands ;    do 


314  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

rather  one  single  thing  which  His  example  inspires 
— for  the  yoke  is  one  which  He  bears  rather  than 
imposes — and  you  will  be  let  into  the  secret.  Mark 
Pattison  said  that  one  of  the  things  which  impressed 
him  in  his  work  as  a  teacher  was  the  smallness  of  the 
seed  from  which  a  complete  intellectual  life  might 
spring.  Once  get  the  living  mind  into  contact  with 
living  reality,  and  no  matter  how  insignificant  the 
point  of  contact  might  appear,  a  process  was  set  up 
which  would  not  cease  till  the  mind  had  gathered  all 
things  into  itself  It  is  the  same  in  the  spiritual  world. 
The  emptiest  life  only  needs  to  establish  communica- 
tion with  Jesus  by  putting  on  His  yoke  to  be  launched 
on  a  career  of  boundless  satisfaction  and  peace. 

3.  There  is  a  burden  commoner  still  than  that  of  a 
degenerate  religion  or  an  empty  life — the  burden  of  a 
bad  conscience.  There  is  no  weight  so  crushing  as 
that  of  the  invisible  chain  which  binds  a  man  to  his 
past,  and  makes  it  impossible  for  him  to  be  anything 
but  what  he  is.  Can  Jesus  do  anything  for  this  burden  ? 
Can  He  lift  the  load  of  guilt  with  its  crushing  and  dis- 
abling memories,  and  give  relief  to  the  soul  ? 

There  is  nothing  about  which  we  can  be  more 
positive  than  this.  The  Gospels  are  full  of  illustrations 
of  it,  and  they  are  confirmed  by  the  whole  history  of 
the  Church.  Think  of  the  woman  in  Simon's  house, 
who  washed  His  feet  with  tears  and  wiped  them  with 
the  hair  of  her  head,  and  to  whom  He  said,  "  Thy  sins 
are  forgiven  thee  ;  go  in  peace  ".  Think  of  Peter,  when 
the  Lord  turned  and  looked  upon  him,  as  he  denied 
Him  with  oaths  and  curses.  Think  of  the  paralytic 
borne  of  four,  on  whom  He  wrought  the  comprehensive 
miracle  of  redemption  :     "  Courage,  child,  thy  sins  are 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  315 

forgiven  thee  ;  arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk  ".  In 
cases  Hke  these  we  see  the  burden  falling,  the  chain 
breaking,  peace  welling  up  through  the  deepest  peni- 
tence, joy  and  hope  dawning  in  souls  that  had  been 
sunk  in  despair.  And  it  is  such  souls  as  much  as  any 
that  are  appealed  to  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  "  Come  unto 
Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest ". 

What  the  man  who  is  burdened  with  a  bad  con- 
science needs  is  the  assurance  that  there  is  a  love  in 
God  deeper  and  stronger  than  sin.  Not  a  love  which 
is  indifferent  to  sin  or  makes  light  of  it.  Not  a  love 
to  which  the  bad  conscience,  which  is  so  tragically  real 
to  man,  and  so  fatally  powerful  in  his  life,  is  a  mere 
misapprehension  to  be  ignored  or  brushed  aside  as  in- 
significant. No,  but  a  love  to  which  sin,  and  its  con- 
demnation in  conscience,  and  its  deadly  power,  are  all 
that  they  are  to  man,  and  more ;  a  love  which  sees 
sin,  which  feels  it,  which  is  wounded  by  it,  which  con- 
demns and  repels  it  with  an  annihilating  condemnation  : 
yet  holds  fast  to  man  through  it  all  with  Divine  power 
to  redeem,  and  to  give  final  deliverance  from  it.  This 
is  what  the  man  needs  who  is  weighed  down  and 
broken  and  made  impotent  by  a  bad  conscience,  and 
this  is  what  he  finds  when  he  comes  to  Jesus.  The 
doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  the  doctrine  of  the  cost 
at  which  such  a  wondrous  revelation  of  love  is  made 
to  sinful  men  :  it  is  intended  to  make  intelligible  the 
method  and  the  cost  of  forgiveness.  We  do  not  need 
to  be  astonished  if  what  are  called  the  intellectual 
difficulties  of  the  Gospel  culminate  here,  and  if  there 
is  no  doctrine  which  men  are  so  prompt  to  criticize  and 
to  repudiate.     In  the  nature  of  the  case,  if  we  try  to 


3i6  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

construct  a  doctrine  of  forgiveness  at  all,  it  must  be  a 
difficult  doctrine ;  it  has  to  focus  in  itself  many  great 
and  superficially  inconsistent  ideas.  All  the  attributes 
of  God  must  be  active  in  it,  His  inviolable  holiness  and 
His  infinite  love.  All  the  aspects  of  human  nature 
must  have  justice  done  them  in  it ;  its  deep  corruption 
and  its  capacity  for  redemption.  Not  merely  the  re- 
lation of  the  sinner  to  God  and  to  the  moral  order  of 
the  world  has  to  be  considered,  but  the  solidarity  of 
the  sinner  on  one  side  and  of  Christ  on  the  other  with 
the  whole  human  race.  When  we  try  to  apprehend  all 
these  things  at  once — and  these  are  by  no  means  all 
that  have  to  be  considered — who  will  venture  to  say 
that  He,  has  done  to  all  the  justice  to  which  they  are 
entitled?  Who  will  be  astonished  if  the  doctrine  of 
atonement  has  sometimes  been  superficially  and  in- 
adequately handled,  if  it  has  been  misunderstood 
and  misrepresented,  if  it  has  been  preached  in  forms 
which  rather  challenged  the  criticism  of  the  conscience 
than  satisfied  its  deepest  needs?  But  why  trouble 
about  the  doctrine  ?  Surely  what  conscience  cries 
out  for  is  not  the  explanation  of  forgiveness,  but  the 
experience  of  it;  and  for  this  we  must  come  to  Christ. 
The  experience  does  not  rest  on  the  doctrine,  but  the 
doctrine  on  the  experience.  No  doctrine  can  make  us 
certain  in  our  very  souls  that  there  is  a  love  of  God 
against  which  even  our  sin  is  powerless,  but  it  is  to 
give  us  that  very  certainty  that  Jesus  cries,  "  Come  unto 
Me  ".  We  cannot  get  it  in  thecatechism.  We  cannot 
get  it  through  any  doctrine  of  the  work  of  Christ. 
We  can  only  get  it  in  His  company,  because  the  thing 
itself,  the  love  which  bears  sin  and  which  holds  fast 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  .       317 

to  man  through  it,  is  manifest  in  all  its  power  and  in- 
tensity in  Him  alone. 

And  if  here  again  we  ask  how  it  is  that  He  imparts 
this  certainty  to  those  who  come  to  Him — how  He 
creates  in  sinful  souls  the  assurance  of  a  pardoning 
and  restoring  love  in  God  which  gives  the  victory  over 
sin — we  can  only  say  again  that  the  ways  are  too 
manifold  and  too  wonderful  to  trace.  Sometimes  the 
assurance  is  born  within  us  as  we  hear  Him  proclaim 
forgiveness  to  the  paralytic  or  to  that  passionate  peni- 
tent who  wet  His  feet  with  tears.  Sometimes  it  dawns 
upon  us  as  we  see  Him  receive  sinners  and  eat  with 
them.  Is  not  that  a  very  sacrament  of  pardon,  that 
fellowship  of  the  sinless  one  wnth  the  sinful,  in  which 
they  are  made  to  feel  what  their  sin  is,  and  yet  are 
not  driven  away,  but  have  access  to  the  Holy  One  ? 
Is  not  that,  as  it  were,  forgiveness  incarnate,  a  pledge 
of  it  that  no  one  can  misunderstand  ?  Sometimes 
again  the  certainty  shines  out  for  us  from  the  gracious 
parables  of  Jesus — from  the  story  of  the  two  debtors 
who  had  nothing  to  pay,  but  obtained  a  free  discharge  ; 
or  more  movingly  from  the  story  of  the  prodigal  son, 
whose  father  saw  him  a  long  way  off,  and  ran  and 
fell  on  his  neck  and  kissed  him.  We  know,  as  Jesus 
speaks,  who  that  father  is,  or  rather  whom  he  stands 
for;  the  pardoning  love  which  welcomes  the  penitent 
prodigal  is  that  of  the  heavenly  Father  welcoming  His 
lost  children  home.  And  there  are  still  more  wonder- 
ful things  than  these  in  the  Gospels  which  bring  the 
Divine  love  near  to  us  in  Jesus.  With  what  solemn 
yet  reviving  power  the  words  sometimes  fall  upon  the 
heart,  *' The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered 


3i8  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for 
many !  "     To  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  :  here 
we  have  something  connected  with  sin,  and  not  dis- 
proportioned  to  it — something  deeper,  more  wonder- 
ful, more  powerful  than  sin — something  that  when  we 
see  in  it  the  key  to  the  whole  life  of  Jesus  makes  such 
a  pardoning  love  as  our  sins  require  credible,   real, 
present,  overpowering.     And  as  we  read  on  in   the 
story  everything  illumines  and  confirms  it.     Who  can 
doubt  that  there  is  forgiveness  with  God  when   He 
hears  Jesus  say  at  the  Supper,  *'  This  is  My  blood  of 
the  covenant,  shed  for  many,  unto  remission  of  sins  "  ? 
or  when  He  sees   Him,  as  He   passes   through    the 
council    hall,  turn  and  look  upon   Peter?   or   as    He 
listens  to  His  last  prayer  for  others,  **  Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do  "  ?  or  to  His  last 
promise  to  the  dying  thief,  ''To-day  shalt  thou  be  with 
Me  in  Paradise  "  ?     Above  all,  who  can  doubt  it  when 
He  comes  back  from  death,  and,  standing  in  the  midst 
of  the  very  men  who  had  all  forsaken  Him  and  fled, 
says,  "  Peace  be  unto  you  "  ?     No  one  can  take  in  all 
this  and  be  in  doubt  as  to  whether  there  is  forgiveness 
with  God.     We  know,  if  we  have  come  to  Jesus,  that 
there  ts  forgiveness — not  forgiveness  lightly  won  or 
lightly  to  be  assumed,  not  forgiveness  easily    to    be 
understood  or  explained;  but  forgiveness  with  all  the 
reality  and  passion  in  it  of  His  life  and  death,  forgive- 
ness as  mysterious  and  profound  as  all  that  is  most 
tragic  in  the  experience  of  Jesus,  forgiveness  that  has 
plumbed  the  depths  of  sin  and  is  able  to  save  to  the 
uttermost.     We  may  never  be  able  to  explain  it  to  the 
full,  or  to  fashion  it  into  a  clear  and  consistent  doctrine 
— indeed  we  never  shall  be  able ;  it  is  beyond  all  hope 
of  telling  wonderful.      But  we  can  have  the  clearest 


THE  VOICE  OF  JESUS  319 

and  surest  experience  of  it,  nevertheless,  and  that  is 
better  than  any  doctrine.  Bring  the  burden  of  your 
bad  conscience  to  Jesus.  Open  your  heart  to  Him. 
Submit  to  His  discipHne.  Keep  in  His  company,  hsten 
to  His  words,  learn  what  He  is,  come  under  the 
power  of  His  life  and  death  and  resurrection,  and  He 
will  give  you  that  assurance  and  experience  of  a  Divine 
forgiveness  which  will  revive  and  recreate  your  soul. 
4.  Finally,  the  invitation  of  Jesus  is  addressed  to  those 
whose  burden  is  of  a  less  definite  description — the 
burden  of  life  itself  with  its  apparently  inevitable  cares. 
Life  is  a  conflict,  and  we  have  no  choice  but  to  face  it ; 
but  how  many  there  are  who  are  wearied  in  it  with 
responsibilities  which  are  too  heavy  for  them  to  bear. 
Men  feel  this  even  when  they  are  successful :  they  are 
wearied  with  the  greatness  of  their  way.  They  feel 
it  when  they  fail,  and  when  greater  effort  is  demanded 
of  them  while  their  strength  is  becoming  less.  Yet  in 
both  cases  alike  it  may  easily  be  that  there  is  some 
false  conception  of  life  in  the  mind — some  convention 
assumed  to  be  authoritative — which  in  the  presence  of 
Jesus  would  lose  its  power.  Many  of  our  burdens  are 
in  this  way  of  our  own  making.  We  measure  life  by 
an  unreal  standard.  The  things  we  are  so  keen  about 
are  not,  after  all,  the  things  that  matter.  The  victories 
and  defeats  that  so  elate  or  so  depress  us,  and  in  any 
case  so  absorb  and  exhaust  us,  ought  not  to  touch  so 
deeply  the  spirit  of  man.  Winners  or  losers  in  the 
conflict,  we  have  all  alike  something  to  be  ashamed  of, 
and  it  comes  home  to  us  as  the  word  of  Jesus  falls  up- 
on our  ears,  **  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest  ".  Jesus  knows  the  secret  of  life  and 
teaches  it.  He  gives  rest  by  showing  us  what  true  life 
is,  and  enabling  us  to  enter  into  it  by  taking  His  yoke 


320  THE  WAY  EVERLASTING 

upon  us.  It  does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  we  possess,  though  to  increase  their  pos- 
sessions seems  to  be  the  most  universal  desire  of  living 
men.  It  does  not  consist  in  the  distinctions  we  strive 
for — in  the  attainment  of  commercial  or  social  or  in- 
tellectual or  political  ambitions.  To  all  these  things 
Jesus  was  indifferent,  yet  He  had  the  life  which  is  life 
indeed.  He  had  it  through  all  the  conflicts  of  earth, 
and  through  all  its  excitements ;  he  had  it  through 
temptation,  disappointment,  suffering,  poverty,  death 
itself  That  true  life  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
as  Father,  in  the  conviction  of  His  fatherly  love,  in  the 
consciousness  that  we  are  called  to  be  His  children,  in 
the  liberty  of  obedience  to  His  will.  All  this  Jesus  can 
teach  ;  He  can  initiate  us  into  it  by  His  word  and  life 
and  spirit.  He  Himself  is  meek  and  lowly  in  heart, 
clean  of  earth's  ambitions  and  its  strifes  ;  and  as  we 
enter  into  His  school,  putting  on  His  yoke  and  learning 
of  Him,  His  own  peace  comes  to  us,  the  peace  of  God 
which  passes  understanding,  and  keeps  our  thoughts 
and  hearts  in  Him. 

It  is  not  possible  to  say  on  this  text  what  should 
be  said,  or  even  what  one  would  like  to  say.  All  our 
thoughts  and  words  about  it  are  far  beneath  its  un- 
speakable grace  and  truth.  Let  us  listen  to  it  again, 
as  from  the  lips  of  our  Saviour,  ere  we  close.  "  Come 
unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you  and  learn 
of  Me ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  unto  your  souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and 
My  burden  is  light." 


ABERDEEN  ;    THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS 


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